Torn Between Two
by Symphony-of-the-Soul
Summary: Katarina is late on starting her pokemon journey,and she can't decide between becoming a trainer or a coordinator.With her parents set on her becoming only one of the two,she enters the trainer world as herself,the coordinating world in disguise. OC fic.
1. The Beginning of a Journey

**Greetings, people of ! I have returned! I know it's been a while, but I have a new story for you in exchange! Don't shoot me!**

**So yeah. Now I have to do a brand-new disclaimer. Joy…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any names related to it. I do, however, own the original characters in this story, but Echidnagirl even helped with a couple of those. In conclusion… don't sue me. I didn't mean to.**

**~~~Chapter 1~~~The Beginning of a Journey~~~**

"I told you, she is going to be a _trainer!_"

"Not my baby girl! She's clearly going to become a coordinator!"

"Katarina!" Both of my parents turned to me while I was doing the chores they were neglecting. I sighed. This was an argument the two of them always had, more and more often now that it was almost time for me to go on my journey.

"I'm staying out of this." I said. I went and hung up my pageant dresses that had just come back from the dry cleaners, then fed my pride and joys, mudkip and vulpix.

The truth is that I was a late bloomer when it came to going on my pokemon journey. While most other kids would start their journeys at age ten, my parents managed to hold me back for an extra six years between the beauty pageants that my mom entered me in and taking care of the pokemon at our daycare in the meantime. Dad always had a dream of me becoming a trainer, but mom obviously had a more… "feminine" future for me in mind. Ever since I was a little girl she had entered me in beauty pageants, but recently I've been outclassed by the other girls at the pageants. With such a huge defeat streak, I was finally able to convince my mother to let me quit the dreaded events. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy pageants – I did. Dressing up in beautiful dresses and being acknowledged for your beauty is something rare and generally sought-after by girls, and I got to do it all the time. But the real idea of them set in about a year ago and never stopped nagging at me.

To win pageants, you had to add certain things to yourself in order to make yourself "better." Fake hair, fake eyelashes, fake tan, even fake teeth in some cases – all of them were necessary to win. I was tired of being fake.

Both coordinating and training had their advantages for me. Coordinating gave me back some of what I left behind when I quit pageants. But training hit close to home, too. At the daycare, my favorite part would be training the pokemon we watched to help them get stronger. Most of our clients were trainers, so it was obvious that I was training their babies for battles, and I excelled.

Needless to say, my parents not coming to a decision about what I was going to do didn't help my own confusion. Honestly, why couldn't I do both?

That's when I just realized what I had thought. It was brilliant. I would do both. Maybe if I talked to my parents…

I went and started doing the dishes, with them still yelling it out. When the arguing had reached a calm glaring and thinking break, I put my thought in: "Hey, why can't I be a trainer _and_ a coordinator?"

"No!" They both yelled at me, simultaneously. Well, at least I knew why they're married. They had the same stubbornness.

I sighed again and put the now-clean dishes away, mudkip and vulpix standing beside me waiting to play.

I went up to my room and grabbed the beach ball the three of us would knock back and forth, and started to think.

With my parents both strongly wanting me to do one thing and one thing only, how could I manage to do both?

Well, I would have to trick them.

This wouldn't be any little thing. Mom _always_ watched contests on TV, and knowing Dad, he would want me to send pictures as I got my badges, and call to check in on me constantly. Barely needing to focus on passing the beach ball around, I started to look around my room for any inspiration. The various posters of movie stars and music icons didn't help at all; neither did the piles of pokemon dolls in the corners, hiding the flowers around the room that were painted on when I was a child. Then I looked to my closet – not the closet for my normal, everyday clothes; no – my closet for pageants. Specifically, I saw a dress that had never been worn for a pageant, never seen by my parents, and absolutely perfect for a pokemon contest.

But, even with the dress, how would I keep people from recognizing me? There's no way that I could wear the dress all the time, I would have to change. So that meant that I would be a trainer in public and a coordinator in secret. There would have to be a transformation so great that no one would assume it was me. I would have to wear a mask at contests. Furthermore, I would have to dirty up my appearance for normal, everyday pokemon trainer Katarina. No doing my hair, no makeup, heck, even throwing in bad posture would work. And of course, hiding my figure wouldn't be a bad idea… cargo pants and oversized hoodies it is.

Just then I heard my mom call me downstairs. Pulled out of my trance, the beachball hit me right in the head.

"Ow…" I rubbed the spot where it hit. Looking down at both mudkip and vulpix, they were acting like nothing had happened. I laughed. "Okay, you two, hop on." I knelt down until I felt the two of them jump onto either shoulder, then stood up and walked downstairs.

"Kat, honey, we need more moomoo milk for Mrs. Jones' skitty. Could you run to town and get some?" My mom asked.

I rolled my eyes. That skitty drank more milk than any creature I was aware of. "Money?" I asked, holding out my hand.

"Oh, of course." Mom reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty, placing it in my hand. "You can keep the rest as your allowance."

"Thanks, Mom." I gave her a wave and left the house, walking down the road towards town. Our daycare wasn't directly in town, but it was close enough to walk to. The fresh air and wide open spaces were better for the pokemon, anyway.

Walking again allowed me to zone out and think of what I was going to do with my double-life. Mudkip and vulpix reminded me that people may see my pokemon and recognize them between one person and the other, so I would have to decide which pokemon would be used for training and which would be used for contests.

Up ahead, I smelled the aroma of fried food and heard loud music playing. Of course my parents wouldn't tell me about a festival going on. This was going to make buying moomoo milk tough. The store was on the other side of town, so I had to wade through the crowds of people on the small streets, once nice and clear, now littered with garbage. All the people could make you claustrophobic if you stayed in one spot for too long. Finally I reached a portion of the street that wasn't as packed with people. There were a few booths nearby selling various merchandise, and an artist's booth caught my eye.

I went over and took a look, and the man greeted me with a smile. "Hello, young lady. How are you today?"

I smiled back at him. "I'm good, you?"

"Well I'm just fine, thank you. Do you see anything you're interested in?" Well that annoyed me. Here I hadn't been able to look at his things while greeting him, and he instantly thinks that I love something. I quickly glanced around at the various items until something caught my eye. It was the most gorgeous mask I had ever seen. The overall shape was like a beautifly. It was only a half-mask, so all of my face below my mouth would be free. That was good. Full masks made me feel – you guessed it – claustrophobic, and calling out to your pokemon behind one would be difficult, to say the least. It was gold and silver and a deep violet, all blended together perfectly, and perfectly matching the dress I would be coordinating in.

Maybe the world was trying to tell me something. It was probably saying: "Your plan is brilliant! Go for it! Here, have the only thing you still need to put it into action!" It would be nice if it was saying that.

I pointed to the mask. "How much is that?"

He smiled. "Oh, so you like that? I had to work on that a while to get it right. Mask making isn't exactly my strong suit, so that's the only one I have."

I shook my head. "No, it's beautiful. You did really well."

He shrugged. "Thank you, but they're still a pain to make. I'll sell it to you for twenty-five."

I pulled out my wallet, which had plenty of money from other trips with the same "keep the rest as your allowance" deals. I handed him the money.

"Thank you very much. Would you like a bag?"

"Yes, please."

The man took some tissue paper and wrapped up the mask, then put it into a nice paper bag. Perfect. No one would see it. I practically skipped to the store to get the moomoo milk, until mudkip and vulpix voiced their discomfort of the bumpy ride to me.

"Sorry, guys." I patted them both on the head.

All the pieces are in place. Now I just have to fool my parents.

I returned with the moomoo milk in hand, with my parents nowhere to be seen. Perfect. I put the milk in the fridge, then ran up to my room and hid the bag with the mask in my secret hiding place: under the pile of plushies. I dropped mudkip and vulpix off on my bed to take a nap, then went downstairs. Lo and behold, my dad had appeared and was digging through the fridge for the milk.

"Hey, where's Mom?" I asked.

"She's taking a nap." Dad responded without lifting his head from the fridge.

"Gasp." I said sarcastically. She always took naps. "What a surprise."

"Why do you ask?" He finally pulled his head out of the fridge, taking a sip of the milk.

I took a breath. This was it. "Because I decided that I want to be a trainer."

"Really?" Dad perked up and put the milk down.

"Really." I nodded.

"HA-_HA!"_ Dad yelled, running up the stairs towards my parents' room. "Honey! Katarina wants to be a trainer! I _knew _it!"

"What?" I heard my mom's voice from upstairs. She came downstairs with my dad, still half-asleep.

"I want to be a trainer, Mom. Sorry." I shrugged. "Pageants and contests are too similar."

Mom looked sad, but managed a smile. "That's alright, honey. I know you're going to be the best trainer ever." She glanced at Dad then leaned down to whisper: "But your father won't let me hear the end of this for a month."

I giggled and she stood up straight, now cranky.

"I'm going back to sleep." Mom sighed, hauling herself back up the stairs.

"Tomorrow we'll get all your things ready, alright?" Dad grinned.

I smiled back and nodded. Good, the sooner the better. Contest season was getting ready to start again and I had pokemon to catch and practicing to do.

I swear my mom cried at least 10 times today. The first time when she had finally woken up in the morning and asked if I had actually decided to be a trainer or if it was just some horrible, horrible nightmare.

The most recent occurrence was right before now, when I told her I wasn't taking any skirts with me along with any dresses. So she thought. So here I am, in my room, comforting my crying mother with my backpack lying open on the bed.

"Mom, it's going to be rough out there, and skirts aren't the most practical for things like climbing. What if there was a guy beneath me?" I asked her, trying to make her think rationally.

"Well you could wear shorts underneath." She sniffed before beginning to cry again.

I sighed. "Mom, it doesn't matter, it's the same concept. People should not be able to see what's under my skirt, and when I go on my journey I'll be taking routes where that outcome would be likely. What about cycling road? How would I ride a bike without the bikers seeing?"

"I agree." My dad entered holding my belt for pokeballs. He placed it on the bed. "No skirts."

Finally my mom started to get a hold of reality. "Alright, dear. But at least bring your makeup."

"Mom…"

"Please, honey? For me?"

"Fine…" I acted like it was a pain, but in reality, I was planning on bringing it anyway. There was only so much you could be inconspicuous about taking with you. The mask and my dress were already tucked away at the bottom of the backpack with my undergarments and socks, which my parents thankfully let me pack on my own.

After my few changes of clothes were packed, in went everything I would need to travel: a sleeping bag that could be rolled up to the size of a tissue box and its warm liner, food for both my pokemon and myself, a map, flashlight and a multitool which included pliers, screwdrivers, a nail file, scissors, a side with flint for lighting fires, and most importantly (according to my dad) a knife. Finally, with the addition of a first aid kit to the contents of the backpack, I was almost ready. Dad attached a rolled-up tent to the bottom of my backpack while I added in my music player, the money my parents had given me, and my flaffy plushie I had since I was a little girl named Fuzzlekins. Maybe I should catch a real flaffy.

Mom made my favorite food for lunch before I left – tacos – along with my favorite dessert – brownies. A strange combination, yes, but wonderful all the same. I got the moomoo milk I had bought the other day with the brownies. As soon as I was done, my mom yet again began bursting into tears.

My dad started comforting her and turned to me. "Well, kiddo, you'd better be on your way if you want to make it to Verdanturf town by dark."

"Alright." I ran upstairs and changed into what I would be wearing for most of my journey: A black tank top with bright yellow designs across it, covered by a short-sleeved jacket with yellow straps on it that really served no purpose other than to look cool. I just had regular black, baggy pants on, but those were offset by the yellow and black sneakers I was wearing. Next I decided that I had to deal with my hair. Being so long that it almost reached my rear end, there would be no way I could shove it under the black beanie with a yellow pokeball symbol on it that I was planning to wear. So, I took my hair and put it up into two low pigtails to keep it all in place, brushed my bangs aside, and put the beanie on. Finally I put on my yellow belt for my pokeballs – which for now only contained vulpix's pokeball. Mudkip's was hanging around my neck on a necklace. No matter what, mudkip would always be with me. I finished the look with black fingerless gloves, accented by a few yellow blocks on the back of the hands. I smiled into the mirror approvingly and packed away the things I used into my backpack. I took one last look around my room before I turned out the light and closed the door. This was going to be difficult.

Mom, fortunately, had pulled herself together enough to send me off. We exchanged hugs, kisses, many goodbyes and advice that was most likely there to keep me around longer. My dad snuck me some extra money and told me to buy myself something nice and not to lose it in a battle right away. I only laughed. After a five minute hug from mom, I managed to get away, waving at the two of them until they disappeared from sight.

I knew already that the process of leaving had taken too long. It would take me two hours to get to Verdanturf town, and the sun would set in half an hour. _Wonderful._

I kept up a nice steady pace until it finally got dark. That was when I slowed down until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. It wasn't a horrible night; the moonlight was bright enough for me to see, and I hadn't run into any pokemon that particularly cared about my presence. It was about halfway to the town when flashes of light and loud noises caught my attention in the woods a little bit off of the left side of the road.

With nothing better to do, I went to investigate. When I got close I could hear commands being called by two masculine voices. There was a pokemon battle going on. Not wanting to intrude, I hid behind a tree that gave me the perfect angle to watch but not be seen easily.

The two voices belonged to two guys my age - a miracle in itself – with pokemon that were regrettably much stronger than mine.

The one closest to me was tall - probably a few inches taller than me. His hair was black; short in the back but with long bangs that fell in between his eyes, which instantly caught my attention. The color of his eyes was a piercing green – not grass, or the color of the leaves of a tree, no – they were electric green. That would be the best description.

His outfit had a distinct color palette – red, grey, and black. He had on a red t-shirt covered by a grey jacket, which was lined along the zipper and hem with black. It was open, so I could see that the entire inside was also black, not just the inside of the high collar that came around the back of his neck. His pants were black and a little baggy, and they slightly covered his shoes, which were a combination of red, grey and black.

"Flamethrower, Charizard!" He called out. His voice was smooth, but not exceptionally deep. I looked over to his pokemon, the charizard. I looked over just in time to see it fly up into the air, slightly away from the toxicroak it was fighting, and launch a massive stream of fire at it. It missed the toxicroak, which jumped out of the way, but I was amazed all the same. Vulpix and I had been working on that move for at least a month, and we still couldn't quite get it.

"Poison jab!" A gruff voice called to the toxicroak. The owner of the voice I would barely have been able to see in the dark had it not been for his hair and skin. He was dressed in all black, which sharply contrasted his whitish hair and pale complexion. His eyes were yellow – not quite as bright as the charizard's trainer's eyes, but bright nonetheless. The pokemon took off towards the charizard, and just when I thought that it was going to hit it, it ran by towards the charizard's trainer.

I gasped, but covered my mouth in an attempt not to be heard. The charizard turned and grabbed the toxicroak just before it reached the trainer and threw it – right into the tree I was hiding behind. I had moved behind it to make sure the pokemon wouldn't hit me. The tree stayed standing on the impact – thank Arceus – but then I heard the first trainer's voice again. "Blast burn!"

I threw off my backpack, not hearing the second trainer yell "Return!" or seeing the red light consuming the toxicroak. What I _did_ hear, see and feel, was a flame-covered charizard slamming into the tree and knocking it over-right onto me.

I screamed when it hit me. I had tried moving out of the way, but there was no way I could have moved out of the way in time. I was knocked to the ground, and there was a huge weight right on my back. It hurt like hell. The two guys were busy arguing about something, and the sound of the tree being broken probably covered my scream. I was in too much pain to yell for help, and the charizard had moved back to its trainer. Somehow I moved my arm to the pokeball around my neck and released mudkip.

Mudkip looked distressed when it saw me, and ran over to me, trying to get the tree off. I shook my head at it and whispered "Go get help." I pointed in the direction of the two trainers, and mudkip ran off faster than I had ever seen it go.

It was probably a little more than a minute before mudkip and the charizard's trainer came to get me, but for me the time stretched on for what seemed to be an hour. It was hard to breathe and I was in constant pain under that tree, and I was slowly losing feeling in my legs.

The boy released a rhydon; he had returned his charizard after the battle. The rhydon lifted the tree off of me with ease, and the feeling in my legs rushed back. The only problem with that was that the feeling I got back was pain.

Suddenly being able to breathe also made me aware of something I didn't know about myself: I hyperventilate.

I tried sitting up, but that only made my back hurt more.

"It's alright." The boy said to me. He knelt down and helped me turn over, which would have hurt had he not been so gentle about it. "Take some deep breaths. You're going to be alright."

I did my best to do as he said, and after coughing a few times and almost passing out, I managed to get a hold of myself.

Sensing that I was in better shape, the boy helped me sit up.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Katarina…" Oh boy. My voice sounded horrible. It was raspy and weak.

The boy nodded. "Do you think you'll be able to stand?"

Before I could answer, I heard the more gruff voice again. "Rain dance."

The charizard's trainer looked up and glared as the rain started coming down. As if it couldn't get any worse.

"Go away, Leon, we're done here." He said.

The one named Leon smirked. "I don't believe we are." He looked down at mudkip. I didn't trust the look in his eyes, so I grabbed it and hugged it close to me, even if doing so hurt.

"We're done here." The charizard's trainer said. As if to make his point final he threw my bookbag over his shoulder, picked me up, mudkip and all, and walked away.

If it weren't for how much it hurt, I may have noticed how romantic the moment was: A guy carrying an injured girl in the rain to safety.

That is, if you call "safety" a tent in the middle of the woods. By the time we got there we were both drenched. Thank you, Leon.

The charizard's trainer set me down inside the tent, which fortunately was made for more than one person. It was this moment that I realized I hadn't learned his name.

He stepped into the tent himself after taking off his shoes, sat on his sleeping bag, and started ringing out his clothes.

"…What's your name?" I asked awkwardly. At least my voice was a little better.

"Lane. Pleased to meet you." He smiled at me before taking off his jacket and ringing it out outside of the tent. "Here's your bag, by the way." He placed my backpack beside me.

"Thank you." I dug through the bag and found a towel. After taking off my own jacket and hat, I took my hair down and used the towel to dry off the best I could. When I was done, I looked over to Lane and saw that he was having trouble getting his hair dry, so I threw the towel over to him.

He smiled at me. "Thanks."

When we were both just damp rather than soaked, he started a conversation again.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Like I've been nearly crushed by a tree." Well, there was no other way to describe it. He laughed, though, so that was good.

"Are you bleeding anywhere?"

"I have a couple of scrapes, but I think that's it…"

"Do you want me to look at your back?"

"I guess…" I blushed at the thought. And then, seeing me blush, he probably thought of what that meant, and blushed, too.

"W-well I- I don't have to if you don't think-" How cute. He was stuttering.

I shook my head. "It's fine. Better safe than sorry."

He moved behind me awkwardly. "Um… can you pull up your shirt?"

Well I couldn't pull it up. Taking my hair down and my hat off was enough of a challenge because it hurt to use those muscles. But, my tank top had a small zipper in the front that made putting it on - and in this case taking it off – easier.

"I don't have to." I said, unzipping it. We were both blushing at that point, I'm sure. It was one of those moments when I was glad I wasn't one of those girls that don't wear a bra. He slid off the shirt and pushed my hair out of the way, over my shoulder and to the front. He took a flashlight and shone it onto my back.

"…you have a gigantic bruise. It's covering most of your back. And, there must have been a twig or something that broke off on you, because you have a pretty nasty cut."

"There's a first aid kit in my bag." I said, hoping it would be of some help. I heard him dig through the bag and hoped that he would find it before he reached the bottom. It sounded like he did.

"This will work well." I heard him digging through the box and pulling out what he needed.

Cleaning the cut was a pain for both of us. It hurt me, and every time I took in a sharp breath or winced, he would take the cleaner away. It took about ten times before I finally said "just get it over with." Then came the awkward part of him having to bandage the cut. Nothing I had with me would have just stuck onto the cut, so he had to take the gauze and the really long roll of bandages and wrap it around my middle, which was like he was giving me a hug every time he made a loop around. When he was finally done, he retreated back over to his sleeping bag.

I dug into my bag and found my pajamas, which were button-up and helped with putting them on. I left it as just the top and my black pants.

"So… judging by your pokemon, you're from Kanto?" I asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I am. Good eye." Lane smiled at me again. "And you're from…?"

"Born and raised right here in Hoenn." I said.

"Oh, cool. When did you start your pokemon journey?" He asked. He took a sip of water. This was going to be good.

"Today."

He did a spit take. I laughed so hard that I thought I was going to hurt myself again.

"Well since you're laughing I know you're not serious." He said, looking humiliated and relieved all at the same time.

I wiped a tear from my eye. "No, I was being serious. My parents held me back on starting my journey so that I could work at our day care."

"Wow." He said. "I can't imagine."

"Well that… and my mom wanted to enter me in beauty pageants."

"You postponed your pokemon journey for _beauty pageants_?" He asked. Then, he blushed. "Well, not that you wouldn't be good at them, because you would…"

I sighed. Note to self: Never tell this story to people after this. "Actually, when I stopped I was on a losing streak."

He blinked, and was genuinely confused. "Why?"

"Well I did very well when I was young, but until around the teenage years all little girls have the same general features. You have to understand something about beauty pageants, the ones who win the most are generally the most fake. I developed limits to how much I would let myself use fake things… and that's what made me lose. Other girls have gotten surgery just so they can win…"

"That's stupid." Lane said.

I nodded. "So if I was going to give you a list… I wasn't fake tanned enough, I'm not tall enough, skinny enough, I don't have a big enough chest, I'm not blond, my eyes aren't pretty enough, I'm not talented enough, and I guess my personality just sucks."

Lane frowned at me. "You shouldn't say that. What's lacking is your self-esteem."

"Being in pageants will do that to a girl…" I awkwardly dug out my sleeping bag and the liner to it. I tried putting the two together, but it was giving me trouble.

Seeing my difficulty, Lane scooted over to me and took them from me. "Well there's one thing on that list I know you can check off." He said while working on putting the two together.

"What is it?" I asked.

He did very well in ignoring my question until he was done with the task in front of him. "You have the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.

That certainly made me blush. He smiled and crawled into his sleeping bag. "Good night." He said.

Oh, that jerk. He wanted to make me blush. Well he wasn't getting away with it. "Good night." I paused, then, "Maybe you should look into a mirror, then."

With that, I got into my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. For now, victory was mine.


	2. A New Identity

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any names related to it. I do, however, own the original characters in this story, but Echidnagirl even helped with a couple of those. In conclusion… don't sue me. **

**~~~Chapter 2~~~A new identity~~~**

When I woke up the next morning, I forgot that my back was hurt and tried sitting up too fast. Aside from my unpleasant awakening, I noticed that Lane wasn't in the tent. He did, however, leave his pokegear radio on and in the tent. While I stretched the best I could and changed into my normal shirt, I listened to it. Just as a good song ended, the MC came on.

"Everyone remember to come to the first-ever pokemon contest of the season in Verdanturf town tomorrow, where we'll be with live coverage of the event, starting at 5!"

Well crap. No time to heal, barely any time to travel. I had to figure out how this was going to work...

Lane interrupted my thoughts when he entered the tent.

"Oh, you're up." He blinked, probably surprised that I was awake so soon.

"Yeah, the guy talking about the contest woke me up." I said. Lane made a face.

"Contests." He scoffed at the word. "I don't know what's worse, the way they make pokemon act or how they try to make people believe they can battle. Coordinators are no better."

Before I could say anything, he went on.

"You know, Leon is a coordinator. He goes by 'Leonardo' when he's in a contest, though… Did you know that he actually has _fans?_"

Leonardo… yeah, I'd heard that name a few times before. Lane continued on his rant as I put on my jacket.

Finally, after everything was packed again, he snapped out of it.

"Why are you packing?" He asked.

"I need to get to Verdanturf town… I'll spend time in the pokemon center there then go to the Rustboro gym when I've recovered."

His mouth hung open for a second, then he instantly knelt down and started packing his bag with his things. "I'll go with you, then."

"That's not necessary." He stopped packing.

"But you-"

I cut him off. "I'm a big girl; a little bit of back pain isn't going to keep me from walking there."

He looked unhappy. "…I'm going to Mauville City. I'll spend a week there. Will you go back in this direction?"

I shook my head. "Not until I get done in the Dewford gym. But, my parents run the daycare in Mauville. I worked there up until I started my journey. Will you do me a favor and tell my parents what happened? And that I'm okay?"

"Of course." He said.

"Thank you." I stood up and picked up my bag, but I couldn't get it onto my shoulders. Lane helped me put it on.

"You see, you shouldn't go alone."

"I'll be fine." With that, I walked out of the tent. He followed me, of course.

"Wait, let me give you my pokegear number." He insisted.

I turned around, and pulled out my own. "Alright, alright…"

We pressed a few buttons and exchanged numbers, said our goodbyes, and I walked away. After walking for about 10 minutes, I stopped and pulled vulpix's pokeball off of my belt and mudkip's off of my necklace. I released them both.

"Now then, which of you wants to be for battles and which wants to be for contests?" I asked.

The two of them looked at each other and talked something out I couldn't understand. They looked at me when they had reached a conclusion.

"So who for battles?" I asked. Mudkip stepped forward.

"And that leaves vulpix for contests." I nodded at them. "Now I have to think of some way to call you out, Vulpix…"

I started walking again as I pondered this.

"How about… 'Time to shine'?" I asked. Both of them shook their heads at me. "Then… what about 'Take the stage'?" I asked. Again, a head shake.

I thought for a minute before a brilliant idea popped into my head. "What about 'Steal the show'?" This earned happy cries of approval from the both of them. I smiled. "Then it's official."

"Mudkip, why don't you take a break while vulpix and I practice?" I pulled the pokeball off of my necklace and returned it, putting the pokeball back on the necklace.

"Well then, Vulpix, you know Sunny Day, Fire Spin, Quick Attack, and we're working on flamethrower..."

Vulpix's ears drooped at the sound of "flamethrower."

"Vul..."

I smiled at her. "Don't worry, we'll get it! Actually..." I looked around. No one else was nearby, and there was a nice open clearing right by the road. I walked over to it.

"Here, Vulpix. We'll work on it right now!"

Vulpix didn't look so excited, but came into the middle of the clearing anyway.

I set down my backpack and dug out my music player. I picked out vulpix's favorite fast song. She immediately perked up when it came on.

"What, you thought we wouldn't warm up first?" I asked, dancing around the best I could. It wasn't quite the same without being able to move my arms as much, but Vulpix was having fun.

Vulpix danced around with me until the song ended, when I switched it off. "Okay, let's get to work!"

"Vulpix!" She was definitely ready now.

"Start with Sunny Day!" I called. But, Vulpix dropped her ears at me and gave me a disapproving look.

Mudkip released himself from his pokeball and faced me with the same look.

"What?" I put my hands up to claim my innocence.

"Mudkip mudkip!" Mudkip yelled at me.

"Vulpix pix!" Vulpix continued. Then, they did the strangest thing I had ever seen them act out for me. Mudkip jumped up and took my hat from me, dropped it onto the ground and got its fin into it. Then, he stood up and vulpix stood in front of him.

"Kip, Mud kip!" Mudkip said in a bright, high tone.

They both turned to me and shook their heads. Then mudkip turned back to Vulpix.

"Kip, Mud Kip!" Mudkip said now in a lower tone with more authority.

They both looked at me and nodded. I blinked.

"You mean… make my voice deeper when I give commands?"

They nodded, but vulpix bounced around a little bit.

"…For contests?"

"Kip!" "Vul!"

I smiled. "Thanks, guys. I will."

Mudkip ran over to me and held up his head. I took my hat off of his head and put it back onto mine. "Why thank you, good sir."

Mudkip sat by and watched as I tried again, using a voice I imagined Officer Jenny or a lawyer using.

"Now, Vulpix, use Sunny Day!" Normally in a battle, I would point. But with the voice came a new mentality. I imagined myself in my dress, behind the mask, in front of a contest crowd. Everything about me had to scream "elegant and mysterious." So, instead of pointing, I used a wave of my arm, flicking my wrist at the end of it.

Vulpix's fur glowed brilliantly and made the sun shine, only showing off her beautiful coat more. She looked and probably felt stronger under the direct sunlight.

I let my arm drop. Not violently, slowly, with my hand lagging slightly behind once again. "Flame spin."

The tiny fox opened her mouth and released a massive pillar of spinning flames, sure to amaze any onlooker.

"Go to the center, Vulpix, then look straight up and use flamethrower!" I would have to figure out a motion for that one.

As Vulpix jumped into the spinning flames, I called out advice for the flamethrower. "The sky is your target! The flames are your barriers! You can do it, Vulpix!"

I saw the small kitsune, in the middle of the flames, look up with a new determination in her eyes. She opened her mouth, revealing swirling flames that then came out in a blast that could have given the charizard a run for its money. The flamethrower swirled at the end of its path, swayed by the fire spin. It changed into a firey orb at the top of the pillar.

"Quick attack!" I called out, not able to hold back after such a good flamethrower. "Hit the orb!"

Vulpix jumped up, the attack making her speed towards the ball of flames. She collided with it, making it and the fire spin disperse. The sun caught on her coat even more from up high, and the flames falling around her made her look gorgeous.

I ran up and caught her before she landed, though I knew there would be no problem if she did. I gave her a giant hug.

"You did it! You got a flamethrower out, Vulpix!"

"Pix!" It cried, snuggling up against me.

"That was great. We're going to use that for the contest, so remember it!"

"Vulpix!"

"That was amazing." I set her down. "Why don't you take a rest?"

Vulpix seemed very enthusiastic about the idea as I returned her to her pokeball.

With that, I grabbed my backpack and, after a slight struggle with putting it on, I started back on the path towards Verdanturf town.

As I walked into the pokemon center, I noticed that there were already a bunch of other coordinators there already, training and going through their routines last minute in a variety of places around the center.

I walked up to Nurse Joy, who turned from her computer to look at me when I approached.

"Hello, and welcome to the Pokemon Center!" She said happily. It was the set greeting for the Nurse Joys, and I didn't know how they said it so happily all the time having to say it over and over again.

"Hi there." I smiled back at her. "Could you take care of my pokemon for me?"

"Why, certainly." Nurse Joy kept smiling while I handed her the two pokeballs.

"I also need a room…"

Nurse Joy handed the pokeballs to a chansey and turned back to the computer. "But of course."

She pressed a few buttons , and her smile turned into a look of shock.

"Oh! We've put people in all of the rooms already! Now, some of the rooms are doubles, and the people in them said they didn't mind sharing, if that's alright with you…"

"Of course, I don't mind." I smiled at her. But, that would be another wrench in the works. Avoiding the roommate to dress for and go to the contest.

Nurse Joy handed me the key to the room, and as I went to find it, I thought this over more.

Not only would the roommate be an issue, but anyone around to see me go in as Katarina and out as… well, as whatever I would call myself… was going to figure out something was up.

I opened the door and looked around the room. My temporary roommate wasn't here right now, but her stuff was. A backpack was thrown onto one of the beds, so I put mine down on the other one, hissing as I took it off. Maybe I would have Nurse Joy look at _me._

Looking around the room a little more, I saw that there was a window. I looked out of it and saw that this window was at the back of the pokemon center, right by some woods. Now _that_ I could work with. There was nothing outside the window in terms of vegetation, so it would be easy to go in and out. I unlocked the window for future use before I forgot.

I heard someone messing with the door and turned around to see who my roommate was.

"Oh look, it's you." The white-haired trainer- scratch that- coordinator - didn't seem fazed by my presence at all. Which couldn't be said for me.

"What the hell?" I yelled.

He ignored my outburst. "How's your back?"

Well I certainly wasn't telling _him_ anything. "It's fine. No thanks to you."

"I wasn't the one spying on people behind trees, now was I?"

Crap. He knew. "I-I was _not_ spying! I didn't want to interrupt!"

He walked over to his bed and leaned against the foot of it. "It's unfortunate that your back is alright. I thought it wouldn't have healed by now."

"What?"

"You should stop yelling. The neighbors will get annoyed."

I stopped and glared at him for a few seconds while I thought of a good comeback. "Why are you here?"

"Nurse Joy gave me this room. And if you forgot, I was here first."

"No, I mean, why are you _here?_ In this town?"

"I'm sure Lane has told you by now."

"That you're a coordinator? Yes; yes he has."

"Then you should realize that I'm here to participate in the contest."

"Oh, I realize _that, _Leonardo. I've heard enough about you."

"So you're a fan, then?" He smirked at me. Something about that smirk was infuriating.

"Being completely honest, no. The other girls at pageants wouldn't ever shut up about you, though, and I got sick about hearing about you, so I quit."

"Oh, really? I thought you would have quit because of a losing streak and the realization that you're not good enough to compete against other girls anymore."

My eyes widened. "How did you-"

"Have you looked in the mirror?" He rolled his eyes at me. "If I were you I would have quit a couple of years ago. At least then you wouldn't be so horrible of a trainer _and_ a pageant reject now."

"What makes you think I'm a horri-"

"I saw your mudkip. It's a pitiful little thing. Good luck getting any gym badges with _that."_

I was ready to punch his lights out when my pokegear started ringing. It was Lane. I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Katarina? It's Lane. Did you make it to Verdanturf town?"

"Yeah, I did. Thanks for your help."

"How's your back?"

"It still hurts a little. I'm going to have Nurse Joy look at it in a little while if she isn't busy."

Leon raised his eyebrows silently at my statement. 'Hurts a little' apparently didn't match up with 'fine.'

"Good. I'm going to visit the daycare and your parents as soon as my pokemon are taken care of."

"Thanks, Lane." I said. Leon walked over and took my pokegear from me. "Hey!"

"I hope you're not developing feelings for her, you stupid muk, you could do much better."

"What?" I heard Lane yell the same thing over the pokegear.

"And, I hope you know that we're going to be sleeping together…"

I blushed insanely, even though Leon didn't even look phased. "You perverted little-" I went to slap him, but he caught my hand with the one not on the pokegear. Holy crap was he strong. He squeezed my wrist.

"Ow! Stop it!" I yelled, trying to pull away.

Leon just laughed. I heard Lane freaking out over the pokegear as Leon hung up and started fiddling with it. It wasn't until he had pressed a few buttons on the gear that he let go of me, wandering over to his backpack and pulling out his own gear, fiddling with them both at the same time.

"Hey, give that back!" I stormed over to him and reached for my gear, only to have him put both of his arms over his head, look up and continue his business. And of course, I couldn't reach.

Apparently he finished whatever he was doing and put his gear back into his pocket, keeping mine in the air.

I wasn't going to be made a fool of by trying to jump for it, though. I stepped up onto the bed and grabbed it from him before he could move it away.

Leon frowned. "That's no fun…"

I glared at him from on top of the bed, liking being higher up than him and being able to look down on him.

"Now what was that about sleeping together?"

"Oh, so you want to?"

I blushed again and went to kick him where it hurt, but yet again he found a way around it. He moved and hit the leg that was supporting me so that I fell – onto my back – onto the bed. I hissed as a clean way of venting my pain. Meanwhile, he grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head on the bed. He leaned over so that his face was dangerously close to mine.

"Don't get any ideas, girl. I can and will make your life miserable, and I'll enjoy doing it."

"Don't call me 'girl.' My name is Katarina. You're no older than I am." I glared at him. Lucky for me, he forgot about my legs. I didn't manage to kick him where I _really_ wanted to, but I got him in the gut. He let go of me and I jumped off of the bed and went to the door.

I looked back and couldn't help but feel a little bad for knocking the wind out of him. Still, he wasn't chasing after me to kill me, so I left to find Nurse Joy and have her take care of my back.

Leon didn't bother me until the next day. It was 1 PM – the contest would be open in 4 hours, while I would have to be there in about 3 hours, just in case registering would take a while. I had to do all of my hair and makeup, not to mention put on my dress and leave without Leon knowing. The problem was that he seemed content with sticking around.

Earlier in the day I bought all that I would need to do my hair – a curling iron, hairspray, and a crap ton of bobby pins.

Now, Leon just wouldn't leave to let me get ready. He was laying in his bed, finding the ceiling quite fascinating. There had to be some way to get him to leave.

"Don't you need to get ready to your contest?" I asked, fiddling with Vulpix's pokeball, now on the necklace instead of Mudkip's.

"I have time." He said uncaringly, not even bothering to look at me.

"Well I have to take a shower. Could you leave?"

"Even more of a reason to stay." He finally looked at me, only to smirk.

I glared at him. That smirk once again pushed all of the wrong buttons.

"Fine." I grabbed my whole backpack and carried it into the bathroom with me. I shut the door and made sure it was locked before I turned on the shower and, while I waited for it to warm up, got out all of my hair supplies.

The shower itself only took about 10 minutes, and I got out and dried off, then put on my pajamas. I left the water running and heard a knock at the door.

"Hey, girl, I have to use the toilet. Let me in." Leon demanded.

"I told you to stop calling me 'girl'! And there's no way I'm letting you in when I'm in the shower! Go use the one out in the lobby!"

"It's out of order."

"Too bad, then go find one out in town or in someone else's room!"

I heard him scoff at me, then trudge out of the door. Perfect. I turned off the shower for the moment to keep hot water for other people, and then I used the hairdryer attached to the wall. I was proud of myself; I finished drying my hair 5 minutes before Leon even got back and turned the water back on, cold this time, before he would even know I had turned it off.

I stood in front of the mirror curling my hair and pinning it up until about an hour had passed. I finished the hairstyle and, satisfied with how it looked, I turned off the water of the shower and put my towel on my head as if it was there to keep my wet hair off of my head and help dry it off. Ha. I moved the dress and mask to near the top of my backpack, still under some clothes, then exited the restroom.

"Really? An hour-long shower?" Leon asked. His contest clothes were laid out on his bed. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, next time I'll take a longer one." I threw my backpack down by the foot of my bed.

He sneered at me. "I swear, if there's no hot water left…" He picked up a bundle of his things and went into the bathroom, closing and locking the door for himself.

It was still a while until I actually had to be ready for the contest, but this might have been the only chance I had to get ready and leave without his knowledge. I dug into my bag and pulled out my dress and the mask. I took off the towel on my head and pulled out my makeup bag. Using the mirror in the room, I shoved a few more bobby pins into my hair, threw on some silver eyeliner, mascara, and red lipstick, then put on the dress. It took about 10 minutes. I put on the mask and looked myself over in the mirror. Not bad. A little bit of lip gloss made the makeup complete.

I grabbed my heels and the necklace with vulpix's pokeball in it, wrapping it around my wrist under my extremely long sleeve, where no one would be able to see it. I unlocked the window, opened it, and slipped out before Leon could get out of the shower. I slipped on my heels and left the pokemon center through the woods, where I followed a path back into town.

I got a few strange looks, but I made it to the contest hall in a few minutes, where I saw a few other coordinators already dressed up and preparing.

I approached the registration desk.

"Hello! Are you here to register for the contest?" The woman asked me.

I nodded, remembering to use my more mature voice. "This will be my first contest."

The woman smiled at me. "Of course. I hadn't seen you around the contests before." She took a card and swiped it through a computer, where she typed in a few things. "Now, what name should I put you down for?"

"Just… Amethyst." I decided, using the purple in my dress and mask as inspiration.

She blinked, a little taken aback, but typed it in anyway. "Now, if you could stand in front of the camera there on the mat…" She pointed to a black mat slightly to the left.

I followed her instructions and stood in front of the camera, keeping my face calm.

"…Do you want to take the picture with the mask on?" She asked.

"Of course." I replied.

"Okay…" She went and manned the camera, counted to three, and took the picture. I didn't smile; I just kept a calm, steady gaze on the camera.

When the picture was done, she put the card into a machine that put the picture onto it, then handed me the card. "This will be your coordinating ID. You'll be able to use this to enter contests, and once you've competed, you'll be able to use the card as entry to other contests if you want to simply watch them. This includes the Grand Festival." She pulled out a box with a variety of colors of ribbon boxes in it. "These are ribbon boxes. You may pick any one you want."

I looked over the boxes until I found a silver one with a purple ribbon emblem on the front. I picked it out. She smiled. "I thought you might pick that one… Thank you for entering! You'll be entered into a random drawing for the performance order at the beginning of the contest. The coordinator preparation room and viewing area are back that way." She pointed back towards a door.

"Thank you." I turned and went to the door. When I entered, I first saw the viewing room with various benches tables, and chairs for coordinators to sit and watch monitors located high up all over the room. There was a refreshment table near the back, not yet completely set, being prepared by a few staff members. I also saw a men's and women's dressing room, and a separate room from that equipped with materials to prepare your pokemon: namely, brushes, combs, and anything else you might need to make the pokemon look their best. I knew from the coordinators who brought their pokemon to the daycare, however, that most coordinators didn't use those items and instead used their own things.

I went into the women's dressing room and looked myself over more thoroughly. My hair was still fine, the bun on the back of my head was still in place, with the smaller strands of hair curled and pinned to it perfectly covering it. They looked almost like small flowers, now that I looked at it. Of course, I had too much hair to fit into a small bun like that, so the extra hair not in the bun came out of the bottom in curls, with a few of the flower-like pieces of hair pinned into it in various places.

The dress wasn't dirtied by my little trip through the woods, since I lifted it up off of the ground while I was walking. The top was a strapless corset – it was currently on, but not tightened. The main color of it was purple, with the lining of it being silver. The strings used to lace up the corset in the front and back were gold. I would have to ask someone to tighten it for me. Also, it would hurt my back more. Oh, the price I pay for beauty… Moving on, the skirt which fell down to the floor and seemed to flow with my movements was the same deep violet as the corset, with silver threads woven throughout it so that you would only see it if I moved. Completely dethatched from the dress were sleeves that started right in the middle of my upper arm, between my elbow and shoulder, and hugged it until just above the elbow where it completely fanned out. There was a smaller sleeve underneath the giant opening that attached at a point to my middle finger, though that was the only part you would normally see under the larger sleeve, which ended a few inches above the end of my hand. The sleeves were dark violet as well, but the inside of the fanned-out portion was silver with gold designs decorating the entire section. The same gold designs could be found around the edges of the dress. At the bottom hem, just under the corset, and on the purple portion of the sleeve around the end of it.

I spotted another girl in the dressing room, who was looking me over. She was probably twelve or thirteen years old by the looks of her, and clearly impressed by my appearance. Her hair was a soft brown and up in a ponytail, and her dress was a nice light green. It was fairly simple, sleeveless, but with straps around one inch thick. The dress stayed close to her body on top then poofed out for the skirt. The dress matched her eyes. She had on pink ballet slippers and a pink necklace, and she looked very nervous.

"Hi there." I smiled at her.

She looked shocked that I decided to talk to her. "Um, hi…"

I went and sat down by her. "What's your name?"

"Marie… what's yours?"

"I go by Amethyst." I said, liking the name more now. "Is this your first contest?"

She nodded.

"Looks like it. It's my first one, too." I admitted.

"Really? But you're so…" She looked me over again, trying to find the words.

I laughed a little bit. "Yes, I'm late. But I've been watching contests for a while and practicing with my pokemon. I know what goes on."

"I've been watching a bunch of contests, too!" Her eyes lit up. "I couldn't wait to start on my journey to be in one!"

"And here you are." I smiled at her again. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. I'm not expecting to win this contest. I just want to see what works for later."

"But you should try to win!" She looked dismayed at the thought.

"Oh, that doesn't mean I won't try my hardest. I will. You should too, Marie."

Marie nodded at me. "I will!"

"Good." I stood up. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go tend to my pokemon…"

"Bye!" Marie called after me. I sent her a wave as I exited.

Back in the viewing area, I saw a few more coordinators, including Leonardo. He was wearing black dress pants and dress shoes – no surprise there – with a completely buttoned-up jacket that I couldn't have pictured him wearing before. It was white, for one, but not only that, it had tails on it that fell down to his knees in the back. There were silver designs all over it, and the neckline was a collar a lot like Lane's – it was normal in the front, but it was up higher in the back to accent his neck. He looked like he should be some kind of prince.

I didn't want to try out my new disguise on him just yet, so I went into the area to prepare your pokemon. There I found a woman tending to her Flaffy to help me tighten the corset. I braced myself against the wall while she pulled the strings back, holding back a few grunts not only from the wind being squeezed out of me, but the pressure being applied to the cut on my back. Finally the woman finished tugging the corset as tight as it would go without breaking a rib, and I thanked her. I went and found a brush for Vulpix and a place to sit down before I released her. She sat in my lap as I brushed her fur to make it smooth and shiny, when Leon walked in. For some reason, I caught his eye.

He walked over and sat down on the bench next to me, releasing a vaporeon, which probably was the one that used rain dance on Lane and I.

"Nice vulpix." He said, getting out a brush of his own and a sponge for his vaporeon.

"Thank you." I said. "Likewise with your Vaporeon."

"I haven't seen you at any contests before…"

"You wouldn't have." I replied calmly, focusing only on brushing Vulpix.

"Could I ask your name?"

"Amethyst." I replied. "And yours?"

"Leonardo. Pleased to meet you."

Now _this_ was strange. He was acting like a perfect gentlemen to me, but when I was still Katarina he seemed content with making my life miserable. Maybe we're both acting.

"Why the mask?" He asked.

"I have my reasons…" _Crap. I need to think of an explanation for the mask._

"I'm sure you would look lovely without it." He smiled at me.

"As I said… I have my reasons for wearing it. I would prefer that no one sees my face." I finished brushing Vulpix and returned her to her pokeball.

"Ah. Very well." He stood up and did the same to his vaporeon. He offered me his hand. I took it, and he helped me stand up, which was a much bigger feat with the corset on. With me standing, he bent down and kissed the back of my hand.

"I wish you luck today." He stood up straight and gave me my hand back.

"Good luck to you as well."

**~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~**

**Aaaaaand there's chapter 2! Stick around for chapter 3, where you will see the contest and the results of the contest! **

**Reviews are loved and will get you oxygen cookies! **


	3. The First Contest

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any names related to it. I do, however, own the original characters in this story, but Echidnagirl even helped with a couple of those. In conclusion… don't sue me. In addition, Echidnagirl also helped me with a couple quotes and scenes to get this chapter moving along. Thanks, Echidnagirl!**

**~~~Chapter 3~~~The First Contest ~~~**

The contest began, and all of the coordinators were called out onto the field for the random drawing of the performance order. I didn't particularly care where I stood, but Leonardo found me and stood by me in the line as our names were called. The crowd would cheer for their favorites and politely clap for those they didn't know as well as they were called. But, when Leonardo's name was called, a huge roar emerged from the crowd. Oh boy. He waved and gave the crowd a gentleman's smile that I could see making some girls' hearts melt. Too bad I wouldn't fall for it.

My name was called immediately after Leonardo's, and the most cheering I got was the leftover from Leon's, with a little from Marie, who was down the line a ways. Mostly there was talking amongst the people who knew each other. Things along the line of 'who is that?' and 'why is she wearing that mask?'

When all of the names were called off, we all turned to watch the huge monitor to see the order we would be going in.

Out of all the coordinators, with every other possibility, of course Leon had to be first and I had to be second. Maybe this coordinator thing wasn't going to work out after all…

We filed out, and the field was set up for us. Leon took his pokeball and went straight to the standby area, where I also had to go in order to make the transition from performance to performance quickly. He was leaning against a wall of the hallway, looking out at the work being done to the field. The roof was being opened, the field was being cleared of the small stage the MC stood on, and security was making sure all of Leon's fangirls didn't run onto the field. I walked up and stood against the wall opposite his. My nerves were starting to get the better of me. I could already feel myself shaking, the butterflies in my stomach, and I was a little nauseous.

Leonardo, of course, looked fine. Better than fine. He looked great compared to how I felt, and I hated him for it. This contest was probably going to be a walk in the park for him…

He looked over at me and smiled, but when I didn't smile back, he took notice. He stood up straight and walked the few steps it took to stand in front of me, now frowning.

"Let me see." He demanded.

"What?"

"Your hands."

After a second, I pushed back the long sleeves and held out my hands. They were shaking worse than even I thought.

"I never pictured you as the nervous type." He mused, holding one of my hands with both of his to feel the shaking.

"Neither did I." I let out the weakest, most unconvincing laugh I had ever heard myself make.

It was then that the MC announced Leonardo's name. He let go of my hand. "You'll be fine." He smiled and walked out to the field, with all of the confidence and poise I wished I had.

Then came the hyperventilating, back from where I had banished it to get what it came for. The next thing I knew my back was against the wall, then I was on the floor. An employee was thankfully nearby and came to help me. He called the contest's medic for me. What's odd was, the only thing I could think of was that I was going to miss Leon's performance. Of all the things to think about when I was about to pass out.

It was refusing them the permission to take off my mask that brought me back. The determination to not let them see my face, along with the adrenaline from nearly suffocating was enough to make me stop panicking and calm myself enough to stand up and tell those tending me that I was alright to go on. In reality, I wasn't, but something told me to go out anyway.

I managed to see Leonardo's vaporeon in its final pose and the crowd going wild even though they were getting drenched by none other than Rain Dance. The memory of _that_ got me riled up even more. And then there was Leon, with an umbrella given to him by an employee as soon as the rain started, looking all perfect. That memory got me even more riled up.

Good. The more adrenaline, the better. He returned his vaporeon and walked back to the hallway, where he handed an employee the umbrella for me to use. He patted me on the shoulder as he walked by.

"Good luck." He smiled at me again.

But this time, my gaze was level, once again back to the calm appearance I wanted it to have. "You might want to keep that. You'll need it for yourself."

He looked stunned as the MC called my name. I gave more attention to getting the umbrella and my dress in order for walking through the rain.

"Next up is a new face! Or rather, a new mask! Here's the mysterious masked butterfly, Amethyst!"

Oh. I liked that.

I stepped out to many less cheers than that of Leon's, but still with more than when I was first introduced. The MC was probably the cause of that.

When I reached the spot where I was to stand, I reluctantly dropped my dress to the ground, glad that it wasn't any more than damp thanks to Leon's placement there while it was still dry.

I moved my hand underneath my sleeve and detached vulpix's pokeball from the string, then made it bigger with the press of the center button. It wasn't until I swung my arm that anyone saw where the pokeball was.

"Steal the stage, Vulpix!" I called out, throwing the pokeball.

The small fox appeared in a brilliant glow of white light unfortunately common to pokeballs. It was underappreciated to say the least.

As soon as the glow dispersed from Vulpix, I gave another command.

"Use Sunny Day!"

The clouds first cleared in the center of the field, right over Vulpix, then expanded from there, completely removing the rain from Rain Dance and its clouds. It brightened the whole field right up, showed Vulpix off, and as an added touch, Rainbows appeared in the sky. It was time to bring their attention upwards.

"Fire Spin and Flamethrower!"

Vulpix knew exactly what to do. She shot the Fire Spin up into the sky , right towards the sun and rainbows. As it was swirling, she kept the fire from the Fire Spin ready in her mouth and shot it up almost immediately into the tunnel. The Flamethrower swirled around and became the orb once again. I left a few moments for the crowd to stare in awe at the marvel of the whole thing before giving my last command.

"Quick attack!"

Vulpix sprang and scattered the fire. I wish I could have taken a picture of the moment: Vulpix midair, looking her best, surrounded by shining fire with rainbows in the background, the sun shining on her coat.

She landed gracefully, and we both bowed – or rather, Vulpix bowed, I curtsied – to the audience. I could have sworn I had gotten more applause than even Leonardo, and I loved it. I soaked in every moment of it, with only a calm, collected smile on my face, until the judges finally quieted them down to make their comments. No doubt I would explode once I was alone.

"Remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo exclaimed. The man was pretty old by now, you would think he could find a better word, or a thesaurus…

"An amazing display of the power of a fire-type." Mr. Contesta, the big-wig who funded all of these things said. "Simply stunning. The both of you."

"I think we've all been warmed up from the water display before." Nurse Joy giggled. "You and your vulpix were in perfect synch. It was great to watch."

"Thank you very much." I tipped my head down at the judges.

"Let's hear it one more time for Ametheyst!" The MC yelled into the microphone. The crowd went wild as I returned Vulpix and walked off of the field back to the rooms.

I got more congratulations in the viewing room backstage from the other coordinators. I returned the kindness with nods and the occasional "thank you," but nothing more. I took a bottle of water from the refreshment table, handed off Vulpix's pokeball to the pokemon care assistant, and sat down to watch the next coordinator. Leon found me, of course.

"I thought you said this was your first pokemon contest."

"It is." I took a sip of my water.

"Then how did you pull that off?"

"We _did_ practice."

"For how long?"

"Oh, I'd say…" I took a sip of my water and thought for a second to build his suspense. "We threw that routine together in about 15 minutes yesterday."

He just stared at me. Probably realizing that I wasn't just a pretty girl behind a mask; I was real competition. Or at least that's what I wanted him to be thinking. I really didn't know.

"What happened to your nerves?" He asked.

"They disappeared when an employee tried to take off my mask. Thank you for the rain, by the way, the rainbows were a nice touch…"

"Of course." He frowned, turning his attention to the screen to view the other coordinators trying to match the bar we set.

No doubt Leon was sizing up the competition, but I was taking mental notes on how the other people showed off their pokemon with their moves, what the crowd liked, and what methods they used to make their pokemon look their best without any moves.

After a couple of hours, the performance stage was finally over. We all looked at the screens nervously as the MC announced the final 16.

The pictures popped up in order from first place to last place. Leon was first. I stared at the screen, hoping to at least be in the 16th slot, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my picture appear 4th in the sequence. Not too shabby.

When the bracket was made, I was separated from Leon for once, and instead was placed against a kid I recognized to have used a bug type. This was going to be a breeze.

The kid's cascoon didn't stand a chance. It was gone within a few blasts of fire. What did he expect, though, when all the pokemon could do was sit there?

My train of thought was broken when the MC announced that Leon would be fighting Marie now. Poor Marie…

Marie appeared first, still looking like a nervous wreck. Then came Leonardo, cool and collected, with his fangirls screaming in a desperate attempt to get some kind of attention from him. He showed them no mind and instead bowed to the audience in general, but that still made a few swoon. I rolled my eyes.

Marie sent out her teddiursa, which still looked freaking adorable. "Come out to play, Teddiursa!" The teddy bear let out the cutest call I had ever heard. Why weren't the fangirls swooning for _that?_

"Center Stage, Vaporeon!" Leon called. The pokemon emerged from its pokeball in a flurry of bubbles. Ball capsules… dang, I had forgotten about those.

Cheers went through the stadium as the MC called the battle to a start.

"Ladies first." Leonardo politely gestured towards Marie.

"Use Dig, Teddiursa!" Marie called.

The teddy bear instantly took its paw out of its mouth and used its claws to make a tunnel under the ground.

Leonardo waited patiently until he saw the ground under his vaporeon begin to move.

"Dodge, then use Ice Beam!" He yelled.

The vaporeon instantly reacted, jumping out of the way of the teddiursa, who had just broken out of the ground and tried to hit the Vaporeon. The vaporeon let out a blast of a shiny, light blue light at the teddiursa and knocked it back into the hole it had just come out of. Marie's points went down by a sizeable chunk.

"And Vaporeon knocks Teddiursa back into the hole! What will they do next?" The MC yelled."

"Keep digging, Teddiursa!" Marie yelled to it.

"Don't let it, Hydro pump into the hole!" Leon called. Marie looked horrified.

Vaporeon jumped right above the entrance of the hole and launched a huge blast of water into the hole. Teddiursa was pushed all the way back through the hole it had dug and out the other end where it started on top of a geyser. The water flow stopped, and the teddiursa fell to the ground. Just the blow from landing knocked it out.

"Teddiursa is unable to battle! That means Leonardo is the winner of this round!" The MC announced as Leonardo's picture took up the entire display screen, along with the word "Winner," and a picture of a crown.

I was stunned. Leonardo must have had that vaporeon since it was an eevee, maybe since the very beginning of his pokemon journey. Years ago. There's no way he would switch it out with another pokemon, and if Vulpix and I make it to the finals with him, we're screwed.

Vulpix was strong, alright, but against a water type like that? Definitely not. If I'm ever going to succeed in these contests, I'll need to catch some more pokemon. A grass type or electric type was ideal, but with that ice beam, grass types were out of the question. Electric type it is…

My worst nightmare was about to come true. I made it to the finals already, and now I was watching Leon fight the other semi-finalist, who was using a Seadra.

For once, the fight looked even between the two, and they were wearing each other's points down evenly, for the most part.

That is, until Leon told vaporeon to use hyper beam. Then the match was over. My heart sank. That vaporeon was going to be the death of Vulpix and I.

To make matters worse, the initial adrenaline I got from my performance ran out around the second performance, when my confidence was still up from the first match. Both were gone now, and I could feel myself starting to panic again.

"That concludes our Semi-finals! Stick around while we repair the field in preparation for our final match for the Verdanturf Ribbon!"

The field was a wreck, I knew that much. It would be a while. Leonardo strolled in without a care in the world and sat next to me, a confident smile on his face.

"Ready to lose?" He asked. At least he was acting like a jerk so I could hate him again. Most of the other coordinators had left and joined the audience, so that left us and the semifinalists we defeated, who were packing up to leave.

When I didn't respond and only stared at the ground, he actually turned to look at me.

"Calm down." His voice turned gentle. "Focus on your breathing." Well crap. I couldn't hate him anymore.

I nodded but wasn't sure what exactly he meant. Focusing on my breathing didn't exactly help. It made me even more aware that I was breathing too fast, which made me more stressed out of concern for my health, and made it worse.

He took my by the shoulders and forced me to look at him. "Inhale until I count to seven, then exhale until I count to eleven."

I nodded and did just what he said. It took him repeating the sequence about 5 times, but my breathing was back under control and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out anymore.

"Better?" He asked. I nodded, and he let go of his hold on my shoulders, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall instead.

"…Thank you." I said after a few seconds.

"It's nothing." He said. "I did the same thing when I was a kid."

"Well I'm ready to lose now." I mimicked his pose without meaning to, and crossed my legs so that we wouldn't look so identical.

"Are you now?" He glanced over at me.

"I know when I don't have a chance. That doesn't mean we won't try, but unless some kind of miracle happens, you've got us beat."

He smirked. "Maybe I'll just toy around with you until all of your points run out…"

"You do that and you lose. I don't believe you'd be that stupid."

"No, I'm not." He laughed. "You know, you're one of the only girls I've met that hasn't swooned in my presence."

I turned and looked at him with the most "you've-got-to-be-kidding-me" expression I could muster from behind the mask.

"First of all, you're my competition. And second, who in their right mind would fall in love with someone while they're desperately trying to get your attention by screaming in your face and smothering you with unwanted affection? All of those fangirls of yours that would swoon for you are just being stupid…"

He smiled. "On the contrary, I humor my fans… especially the female ones. I spend time with them after contests, usually let one take me on a date to a local restaurant…"

"Oh, so you use them. That's reassuring alright." I rolled my eyes. I was back to hating him. He didn't look like or act like he cared about how horrible doing that was. He may think he was doing those girls a favor, but when they decided to come back down to reality their hearts were going to break.

"Amethyst, start making your way to the other side of the field now." A staff member called to me.

I stood up. "Count me out, and call me when you decide to evolve into a Purugly. Then at least your looks would match your heart."

I didn't stay and watch his reaction. I didn't need to.

I walked through the back hallways to reach the entrance to the field opposite the one I came through for the performance stage. Leon would go through the closer entrance.

I heard the MC getting the crowd riled up as I got closer, and when I appeared in the doorway, she decided to get the battle started.

"Now, here's your first finalist, the mysterious masked butterfly, Amethyst!" I walked out confidently to cheering and camera flashes. Apparently during the course of the contest I acquired a fan base of my own.

"And your second finalist, the equally powerful and good-looking charmer, Leonardo!"

Cue the ear-piercing screeching that was his mass of fangirls.

Leonardo looked even more sophisticated and confident when he was headed straight towards you than seeing him from behind or on camera.

"Center Stage, Vaporeon!" Leon sent out the vaporeon first, and as he said, it ended up in the center, surrounded by bubbles.

I took my turn. "Steal the stage, Vulpix!" Vulpix ended up in the center as well, making Leon's vaporeon and its bubbles scatter.

I smirked, and Leon glared at me as the crowd let out an "Ooooh." She stole it alright.

Both of our pokemon came back in front of their own trainers and faced the center.

"Wow, so much tension and rivalry already!" The MC yelled. "5 minutes on the clock, and BEGIN!"

"Ladies first." Leon said across the battlefield.

I smiled. "Of course. Make your move."

He glared at me again. "Vaporeon, use Rain Dance!"

The clouds started to set in and a few drops came down when I countered. "Sunny Day, and use Quick Attack!"

Vulpix's fur started to glow as she took off, the sun coming out on her and once again revealing rainbows in the sky as she ran.

"Vulpix takes off for Vaporeon, letting the sun shine on her fur as she runs! Beautiful!" The MC called. Leon lost a few points, which was more than I could have expected out of this.

"Use Hydro Pump!" He yelled at the Vaporeon.

"Dodge it!"

Leon's vaporeon shot the huge stream of water at Vulpix, who jumped out of the way with the help of the quick attack. Leon lost some points there, but Vaporeon changed the direction of the stream to hit Vulpix mid-air. She fell back and shook it off, but I could tell that it had taken its toll on her. I lost points there.

"And Vaporeon lands a big hit on Vulpix!"

"Use Ice Beam!" Leon yelled.

"Flamethrower!" I countered.

Both of the blasts hit each other at the same time and cancelled each other out. We both lost points there, but the crowd was pleased with the spectacle.

Just when I thought I could stand a chance, he _had _to pull out the big guns…

"Use Hydro Pump again, Vaporeon!"

"Use Quick Attack to dodge it!"

Vulpix managed to outrun the attack until she ran out of field. She jumped over it and ran back, but it hit her right when she reached the middle, in front of me. Not only did it make Vulpix unable to battle, but I was soaked.

The crowd laughed as the MC called out "And Vulpix is unable to battle, which makes Leonardo and his Vaporeon the winners!"

Leon smirked and came over to me while I picked up Vulpix and looked her over. We shook hands, and I was escorted backstage where the pokemon caretaker took Vulpix away to be treated and a staff member used a combination of a Pidgeotto's gust and a Growlithe's heat wave to dry me off. I was just glad my makeup wasn't ruined, or that would cause some mask complications…

I wondered why we even bothered with dry-cleaning my pageant outfits at home after the Growlithe and Pidgeotto were done. They dried off both me and my dress beautifully.

I got Vulpix back and returned her to her pokeball before exiting the contest hall. Leonardo wasn't out yet himself, and I figured the crowd outside the hall was waiting from him and would have just ignored me. But, to my surprise, pictures of me were taken, I was asked for a couple of autographs, and a reporter pulled me aside and asked me if I would be willing to take off my mask.

"No." I said firmly. This captured the interest of the reporters around him and a few more pictures were taken of me before I left the mob behind, thankfully with no one following. They were all distracted by Leonardo coming out and showing off his brand-new ribbon. I ducked into the woods and went back to the pokemon center.

The window was still unlocked when I got back, and despite being disgusted by how Leonardo treated his fangirls, I was glad for it. While he was out eating, I could change without being paranoid of someone finding me out. I lifted myself into the window, then shut and locked it. The drapes came shut next, and I took off my mask. I put it down on my bed and grabbed my backpack, taking out the makeup remover, a hairbrush, and my trainer clothes. To cheer me up, I also grabbed my music player. I carried all of those things into the bathroom to de-glamorize myself and shut the door behind me out of habit.

Leon walked into the room to change into his street clothes. He checked to see if the window curtains were closed and became aware that the trainer girl he despised, who despised him back, was in the bathroom blasting her music. It was a mild annoyance, but he didn't mind so long as she didn't come out while he was changing. His contest clothes were for just that: Contests; and he much preferred his all-black street clothes to the fancy, dress-up ones. He had a girl waiting to take him to a restaurant in the lobby, but wasn't about to take a chance on ruining any of his nice clothes and having to take them to dry-cleaning.

When he thought about dry-cleaning, he thought about that girl at the contest, Amethyst. He began changing while he thought. He couldn't help but smirk at the memory of Vaporeon both knocking out her Vulpix and soaking her dress at the same time. That was priceless.

When Leon pulled his black shirt over his head, he noticed something on Katarina's bed. He blinked, at first thinking he was just imagining things, but when he walked over and touched it, he knew it was real. The mask belonging to Amehtyst – that is, who he _thought_ was Amethyst – was lying on Katarina's bed. And Katarina was conveniently located in the bathroom at the moment. An evil grin came over his face.

_This_ was going to give him a leg up on her, and was too good to let her know he knew. He grabbed his coat and left before she could come out and figure out he was there. Tonight was turning out to be a very good night…

**~squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~**

I emerged from the bathroom, completely back to being Katarina. My hair gave me a hard time, but I got it eventually, and it was now back in its pigtails where it belonged. The music did wonders in cheering me up.

I heard my pokegear ringing in my backpack and dug it out. It was Lane. I answered.

"Hello?" I asked.

"KATARINA!" He yelled.

"What?" I yelled back.

"Are you alright? I've been calling all day and you never picked up and I was worried that Leon-" He cut himself off there.

"Calm down. Leon didn't do anything to me; I didn't let him. He's been at the contest here all day."

"Why didn't you answer?" He asked.

"Leon fiddled with my pokegear a little bit before I managed to get it back. Whatever it was, I got it off, but I couldn't do anything before now."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in my room right now. Why?"

"Come out into the lobby."

I grabbed my room key and walked outside of the room to the lobby. There was Lane, standing there and waiting for me. I hung up my pokegear and ran over to him, giving him a hug when I reached him.

"You're here!" I was amazed that someone I just met would come all this way to make sure I was alright.

"When you didn't answer my tenth call I had Charizard fly me over. I saw that bastard Leon, though, with the next girl he's going to break the heart of."

I had to act like I didn't know what he meant. Amethyst may know about his ways and be bitter, but Katarina had no idea…

"What?" I blinked.

"After every contest he gets one of his fangirls to treat him to dinner, then crushes any dreams she ever had of being with him and lets her pay the bill."

"…You're right, he is a bastard."

"You didn't think so before?"

"He's even more of a bastard than he was." I stuck my tongue out at him.

We laughed for a little bit, then realized we were getting some glares from his fans that were also occupying the center.

"…How's your back?" He asked.

"A little better."

"Go get your things and check out of the room." He said suddenly.

I blinked again.

"Your next stop is Rustboro, right? There's no contest there any time soon, Leon will stay here another night, and you'll get a chance to recover away from him and train with me there."

"You're going to train me?" I grinned. Man did it feel good to grin.

"You have to be able to defend yourself better against Leon, with both self-defense and your pokemon." He smiled, but I could tell he was dead serious.

"But it's almost dark, how are we going to-"

"I told you Charizard flew me here, didn't I?"

I kept my grin and nodded. "Alright, I'll be out in just a little while!" I waved at him and ran back to the room, gathering up all of my things and making sure they were in their proper places in my backpack. I triple-checked the room, changed out the pokeball on my necklace so that mudkip was back on it, and left. I handed Nurse Joy the key and told her I was checking out and headed for Rustboro.

Lane took my backpack from me after that, scolding me that I shouldn't have that much weight on my back when it was trying to heal. I argued that it was a cut, not a bone injury, and anywhere else I carried it would hurt worse.

We exited the pokemon center and Lane released his charizard. It still amazed me. It leaned down so that we could get on. Lane helped me onto its back first, then got on himself. He had my backpack on, covering his, which looked tiny in comparison to mine. It still had to be heavy, though.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Oh, that's the best thing you could come up with?" A voice came from a few feet away. Of course Leon had to show up. The guys instantly entered a glaring match.

"Leave her alone, Leon. I'm taking her away from you."

"Like taking a plaything away from a child? The only accurate part of that mindset would be that she's my plaything."

I blushed like mad, even though it wasn't true.

"Let's get out of here, Lane…" I said before Lane could argue any more.

"You're not worth my time. Charizard, Fly." Lane commanded the pokemon.

The massive orange dragon flapped its wings and thrust itself into the air. I hung on for dear life, completely new to the experience, while Lane kept me steady. When we were high enough in the air, Charizard took off for Rustboro City.

The only thing that we didn't catch was Leon's frown gradually turn into a smirk as he came up with a plan. He went inside to talk to Nurse Joy, then pulled out his pokegear.

**~squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~**

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUN!**

**So Katarina lost her first contest. Maybe her first gym battle will go better with the help of Lane? We'll see…**

**Reviews are loved and will get you oxygen cookies! **


	4. Growing

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any names related to it. I do, however, own the original characters in this story, but Echidnagirl even helped with a couple of those. In conclusion… don't sue me.**

**~~~Chapter 4~~~Growing~~~**

Upon arriving at the Rustboro City pokemon center, Lane helped me off of Charizard and gave him a pet, thanking him. He told me to wait out here while he got us rooms – separate rooms if at all possible. He entered, leaving Charizard and I alone. With nothing better to do, I petted Charizard, starting on his neck.

"Thank you for giving me a ride, I really appreciate it."

Charizard let out something similar to a grunt. It sounded disapproving.

"It was hard carrying two people, wasn't it?"

Another grunt. I had taken care of a few charizards in my time; this was part of their nature. You had to get them to warm up to you. I knew a trick that would speed up that process, though… I moved my hand up to scratch the spot right behind one of his horns. He let out a sigh and looked like he was about to melt before I stopped. He shot right up into his normal posture and snorted at me.

I giggled. "I promise I won't tell Lane."

"You mean about the spot behind his horn? It's a little too late for that." Lane walked over, now backpack-free, and scratched the spot behind Carizard's other horn. The giant dragon started to melt again. When Lane stopped, he snorted at him instead. Lane laughed.

"Thanks, buddy. I owe you one." He returned Charizard and we walked into the pokemon center, where he handed the pokemon over to Nurse Joy. He then gave me a key.

"Your room is right next to mine, I told Nurse Joy that no one, especially not a guy, should share a room with you. If you need help, either call me or scream. Though I'd prefer that you call me, so that I don't kick the door down."

I laughed. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Good night."

"Good night."

I slept like a log overnight. All of those adrenaline rushes really took the energy out of me.

I didn't know what time Lane woke me up, but it was too early. I was still yawning when he lead me out to the practice fields. He had me release Mudkip.

"What moves does he know?" Lane asked.

I yawned again. "Tackle, Water Gun, Bide and Mud Shot…."

"Well if he knows Mud Shot, then this little guy is about ready to evolve…" Lane squatted down and whispered something to him I couldn't quite hear.

Mudkip smiled and nodded, and before I could even ask what they were plotting, I got a Water Gun to the face.

I screamed, of course. Even if I did see it coming, there's nothing like ice-cold water in the face at high pressure while you're still half-asleep.

"Okay, okay, I'm awake!" I held up my hands to signal for them to stop, but I didn't need to. Both were laughing their butts off.

I let them have their fun while I rung out my hair and hat, and then it was time for business.

"Well, your mudkip certainly knows how to use Water Gun. You'll be fine against Roxanne. She uses Rock-Types, two geodude and a nosepass." Lane said. "Now what I want to focus on is you. You need to learn some self-defense."

"I'm not helpless, you know."

Lane raised an eyebrow at me. "You should know that Leon has experience with a ton of girls. He knows what you can get out of easily and what you can't."

Now that I thought about it, he was right. Leon had me pinned pretty well until I realized I could knee him in the stomach. And that pin came after he avoided being kicked in his man-parts. Maybe I did need to learn some things.

We got through the entire self-defense lesson in about half an hour. I was apparently a fast learner when it came to the thought of beating Leon up. By the end, I was pumped, Lane was bruised and sore but happy, and I wanted to fight Roxanne.

Lane went to go get something from the pokemart after he pointed me towards the gym, Mudkip on my necklace in his pokeball once again.

When I entered the doors, I was greeted by a man who looked a little tired and very, very bored. He perked up when he saw me.

"Oh! A challenger!"

"Yep, that's me!" I smiled. "Is Roxanne in?"

"She certainly is." He nodded. "May I ask your name?"

"Katarina."

He nodded. "Right this way."

He led me through some more doors to a battlefield covered in rocky terrain. A girl wearing a blue dress and red tights with her hair pulled back into a ridiculously large red bow was waiting there.

"We have a challenger?" She asked, apparently as bored as the man was.

"Indeed."

She looked me over and perked up. "She looks like an electric-type user! Let's do this!" She jumped up onto her position on the opposite side of the battlefield."

"I will be the referee." The man went outside the field boundaries, halfway between either of us. I took my position and the man announced the rules. "This battle will consist of one-on-one fighting until either the gym leader Roxanne or the challenger Katarina are is out of useable pokemon. Begin!"

Roxanne pulled a pokeball out of her pocket. "Go, geodude!"

I pulled Mudkip's pokeball off of my necklace. "Time to battle, Mudkip!"

Roxanne groaned, slouching and looking up at the ceiling. "Not a mudkip… why couldn't you have picked a torchic?"

While the gym leader was on her rant, her geodude and the referee just stared at her, sweatdropping.

The referee turned to me. "You may have the first move, Katarina."

"Alright! Use Water Gun, Mudkip!"

The geodude, without any orders from its gym leader, was hit dead-on and knocked out.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" The referee called.

"Huh? Oh no!" Roxanne finally snapped out of it. She returned the geodude to its pokeball. "Sorry buddy."

She pulled out another one. "Go, geodude!"

She sent out another, practically identical to the one before.

"Use tackle!" She called.

"Water gun!"

The water hit the geodude as it came barreling towards Mudkip. Not only did the stream of water knock it back, but it also knocked it out like the first one.

"Geodude is also unable to battle!" The referee looked bored again.

"So you're going to make me pull out the big guns, eh?" She called, pulling out another pokeball.

"I guess I a-" She cut me off.

"Go, nosepass!"

I blinked. This girl was insane….

"Your mudkip won't be getting out of this! Use Block, Nosepass!" She called.

"Water gun!"

A giant glowing 'X' appeared over Mudkip, but quickly disappeared as the Water Gun knocked nosepass out as well.

"Nosepass is unable to battle, and that means the challenger, Katarina, is the winner!" The referee called.

"Awwww…" Roxanne pouted as she returned her nosepass. She ran over to me while I gave Mudkip some praise and returned him to his pokeball.

"Since you won, here's the Stone Badge, the Hidden Machine Cut, which you can cut down trees with if you're into that sort of thing, and some money." She shoved the pile of items into my hands, barely giving me time before she pushed me out the door of the gym.

I put the money and HM into my pocket, but left the badge out. I walked towards the Pokemon Center, admiring it as I went. That battle was a joke, no doubt, but just having a badge was a big confidence boost.

Then I thought that I needed to call my parents. I wanted to avoid it before, since it would have made me run home at the beginning of my journey and I couldn't have shared my disappointment about losing finals in the contest with them, but now I had something to talk about and a reason to stay on the road. I could do this, at the very least.

I spotted a bench and sat down, pulling out my pokegear. I dialed in the phone number I had memorized by heart and put the device to my ear, waiting as it rang.

"Pokemon Day Care, how may I help you?" My mom's voice came over the phone.

"Mom! I just won my first battle!" I yelled.

"Oh, that's great, honey! Your father is out running errands right now, but he'll be so proud of you when he hears, I'm sure. I'm not going to hear the end of it from that man… Oh! But that means you'll be going to Dewford Town next! That's wonderful, and you know why?"

Oh boy. "Why, Mom?"

"Because you'll be able to watch the contest there! It will be there in a few days, and there's this new coordinator that I saw on TV – Amethyst, I think her name was – and she wears a masquerade mask!"

"Really?" I asked. Oh, this was great… my own mother didn't even recognize me.

"Yes, yes, and she's really good! She has a Vulpix, just like yours, only it knows flamethrower, and-"

"Gee, thanks, mom. Vulpix appreciates that." I rolled my eyes.

"But that's not even the best part! She made it to finals against _Leonardo,_ and did well even when she was up against his Vaporeon! If she had used a different pokemon, she may have won!"

"You know, I actually saw Leonardo in real life when I passed through Verdanturf. He's a jerk. It may be good for him if that girl beat him."

"Oh, honey, I'm sure he's not _that_ bad…"

"He is, Mom."

"But he's _cuuuute~_"

"Mom!" I yelled at the phone, blushing.

"Oh I'm just toying with you, dear. I have to go now, I think an Espeon is about to have an egg! Love you!"

"Love you, mom."

I heard the line click on the other end, and homesickness set in once again. I liked helping when pokemon were about to have eggs, and taking care of the eggs before the trainers picked them up.

Right as I was about to go back to the Pokemon Center, my pokegear rang again. I didn't recognize the number, but I decided to answer it anyway.

"Hello?"

The person on the other end hung up before saying a word. It must have been the wrong number.

I pocketed the pokegear once more and went back to the Pokemon Center, giving Mudkip's pokeball to Nurse Joy before I went to my room.

I busied myself by packing up the few things that were out of my backpack, then laying on my bed and staring at the badge for a while.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, I heard a knock on my door. I sprang up and answered it.

"How'd it go?" Lane asked as soon as it was open.

Unable to contain myself, I half-tackled, half-hugged him. "I won!"

He laughed, returning the hug. "I knew you would."

"So the next stop is Dewford town."

He nodded. "The next ferry leaves tomorrow morning. For now, why don't we go see about finding some pokemon for you to catch?"

"Heck yes!" I practically skipped back into my room and grabbed my extra pokeballs, putting them into the extra pocket on my belt.

With that, we headed out onto Route 116 where Lane and I split up. He decided to go into the woods to see what he could find, while I went to wade through the tall grass.

The only wild pokemon I came across were some whismur, which ran away as soon as they saw me. Disappointed, I left the tall grass and sat down on a rock to take a break.

'I haven't heard from Lane in a while...' I thought. Just before I could get worried, some rustling in the bushes next to me snapped me out if it.

Before I knew it, two pichu, who looked like siblings, busted out if the bushes, jumped onto me and took a place on either shoulder. A poochyena followed soon after, and immediately saw the pichu on my shoulders.

I stood up and crossed my arms at it.

"Do you really want to try me?" I asked it.

It whimpered and backed off, putting its tail behind its legs as it ran back into the bushes it came from. The two pichu cheered and stuck their tongues out at it.

I laughed at them. "Now, what did you do to get that big nasty thing to chase you in the first place?"

One pichu sweatdropped and blushed while the other pointed to the first, obviously accusing it of the deed.

"Alright, alright… Do you guys have a trainer?"

They shook their heads, making their adorable little ears flop around. The only difference between the two of them was that one had a tuft of hair that I could tell was doomed to be forever out of place.

"Well I'm looking for some new partners. Would you like to go on my journey with me?"

They looked at each other and started discussing it amongst themselves. One nodded, the other shook its head.

I tilted my head at the one that shook its head. "What's wrong?"

They looked at each other and hopped down off of my shoulders, taking my hat with them. Something told me it was time for a classic pantomime that all pichu and its evolutions had from birth.

The one without the tuft of hair put the hat on its head, which was adorable in the first place, then pretended to give the one with the tuft an order. It promptly attacked a twig, and they turned to me, saying this was the end of that phase of the presentation.

"So you want to be with me…" I motioned to the one with the tuft, who had nodded at my offer before.

"And you…" I looked at the one without the tuft currently getting my hat off of its head. When it was off, the two of them worked together to shape it into what looked kind of like a ribbon. The pichu who refused my offer hugged it.

"You want to be in contests?" I asked.

It nodded enthusiastically.

"Well that's perfect, actually."

This time they tilted their heads at me, at the same time, their ears flopping to the side.

I knelt down by them and took my hat back. "I'm actually both. But you can't tell anyone, it's a secret. I wear a mask and everything so no one knows who I am."

The contest-bound pichu perked up. "Pi! Pichu-cha!"

"I assume you've seen me before, then. So, do we have a deal?" I asked once more.

This time they both nodded.

"Awesome, guys, thanks." I smiled at them and pulled out two pokeballs, holding them up to them. They both walked up and pressed the buttons, letting themselves be taken in by the red light. The pokeballs twitched a few times, and then latched shut.

Before I could release them again, my pokegear rang.

"Hello?"

"Katarina, go back to the pokemon center _now._"

"What? Lane, what's going on?"

"Leon-"

A hand went over mine and closed the pokegear while another looped around my waist from behind. "Leon had his beedrill String Shot Lane to a tree and came after you." The hand on the pokegear moved to my wrist and squeezed it tight.

"What the hell do you want, Leonardo?"

"Oh, using my full name are we? I suppose I'm in trouble…"

I went to stomp on his foot, but as soon as mine was raised, he pulled me back so I lost my balance and my back moved against his front. "Let go of me!"

I felt him lean down by my ear and turned my head to glare at him. Once again, our faces were dangerously close.

"Don't get any ideas, Trainer. Let this be a reminder that I'm stronger than you, stronger than Lane, and I always get what I want. It's useless to run away."

"Oh really?" I spit in his eye, headbutted him, and then ripped myself out of his grip. I started running, when I saw Lane running in my direction, out of the forest. I ran to him.

Lane took my hand and stepped in between the two of us. Leon wiped his eye and glared right through Lane, at me.

"You're going to pay for that, girl."

"And you're going to turn around and walk away." Lane said, making Leon's attention shift back to him.

"Why don't you make me?" Leon grabbed a pokeball off of his belt.

"Not today." Lane turned around and led me away from him. I heard the sound of a pokemon being released from a pokeball, then the words: "String Shot."

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my legs wrapped up in a ton of goop. I couldn't break its hold no matter how hard I tried.

Lane wheeled around and sent out his Charizard.

"Flamethrower, Charizard!" He ordered it.

The dragon let out a plume of fire that my vulpix still couldn't match. While Leon was busy telling his beedrill to dodge unsuccessfully, Lane picked me up.

The beedrill lay knocked out on the ground, slightly charred, and before Leon could send out another pokemon, Lane had Charizard fly us back to the pokemon center. He carried me to my room where I got out my multi tool and cut the bug goop off.

While I was sitting on my bed, picking off the pieces of it left on my pants, Lane was pacing around the room angrily.

"That was just low, attacking you. He could have attacked me and gotten what he wanted, but _no, _he had to bring _you_ into this."

"Lane, it's not that big of a deal. It was just a String Shot, he did it to make you angry. I see that it worked."

"That doesn't matter, Katarina, you're a _girl! _You don't bring other people into your personal disputes, much less _girls!"_

"What, you think I can't take care of myself?"

"If you were just dealing with basic things, even with other guys, but not _Leon, _then I would think you can_. _What makes him so set on you is beyond me; he'd have gone through at least 10 girls in the time that he's been interested in you so far."

"Maybe it's because I'm not going to drool all over pictures of him and worship the ground he walks on? Or maybe because you're so set on protecting me?"

"Probably both."

"What happened that made you two so set on being each others' enemies, anyway?"

Leon sighed and sat down on the bed next to me, finally cooling down in preparation for what I assumed was a long story.

"We're both from the same town. We started our journeys at the same time. He was in contests, I was a trainer. The other guys from our town always made fun of Leon for wanting to be a coordinator and said that he wasn't ever going to get any girls that way; and he was either going to end up sad and alone when he was 40 or gay. They also said that _I _was the one making the right choice of the path of my journey, which I believed, and that I would end up so much stronger than him it wouldn't even be funny. So Leon set the goal to not only get more girls than me, but also to beat me in just about everything, including having the ability to beat me up. We're pretty evenly matched physically – I know because we've gotten into fist fights before – and he's resorted to trying to make his pokemon attack me to get the upper hand in battles or in a regular fight. As for the girls, I hate how he treats them. He was taught how to treat a girl just like I was, but he used his good manners to sway them then dumped them. You've seen how he is with girls. I, on the other hand, prefer to treat every girl like an equal. – you being the exception, of course…"

"Wait a second, you don't think of me as an equal?"

He blinked, then realized what he said and got flustered. "W-well I didn't mean it like that, I mean you're late on your journey and-"

"You said you treat _every_ girl like an equal. That means you would treat a 12-year-old just starting out her journey as an equal. Why am I any different?"

"Because I-" He paused.

"Because you what?" I glared at him and crossed my arms. Lane was probably thankful that I had put away the knife.

"Because… I think you're amazing."

This time I blinked. "What now?"

"I haven't seen you cry once, even when a tree was crushing your back. You willingly put up with entering contests to please your mother and helping your parents at the daycare, putting your journey on hold the entire time. Even after that, in a little while I think you'll be able to kick my ass in a battle. You're strong, selfless, and honest, and on top of all that you're beautiful. I don't think there's anyone else like you in the world."

By the end of that, we were both blushing like mad, Lane had taken my hand, and somehow we were a couple of inches closer together. Then, I saw him close his eyes and get even closer to me and I felt myself doing the same.

I was just about to have my first kiss with my knight in shining armor, and as perfect as the moment was, I couldn't get that one word out of my head.

"Honest."

He didn't know I had lied to him. I had lied to him multiple times before, and I was going to lie to him even more later. It was unavoidable, especially since he hated coordinators so much. We couldn't be together for as long as he probably hoped if I was going to effectively get into my disguise and enter contests without someone asking where Katarina was.

I pulled back and opened my eyes, and, when Lane felt the shift, he did so as well.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

I stood up and walked to the window across the room, trying to avoid the temptation to shake it off and kiss him.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong… It's not you. I have a lot on my mind right now, and a relationship would just…" I shook my head. "Make everything way too complicated."

Lane followed me to the window and put his hands on my shoulders, keeping his arms straight so that we were an arm's length apart, and made me face him.

"Do you promise that you're alright?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Alright. I need to go back to Mauville City and do some things. I still need to get the gym badge there, too. Will you be alright going to Dewford Town on your own?"

I nodded. "I could go on my whole journey alone if I needed to."

He frowned at that and let go of me. "I'll see you later. Be careful." He left the room.

I sighed and flopped down on my bed. It killed me lying to him like I was. I went back through his list of why he liked me.

Of course I wasn't honest, that had been determined.

Was I selfless? No. The reason for lying so much was so that I could be a trainer and a coordinator, against my parents' wills. I was pretty selfish.

Was I strong? No, if Leonardo wanted to he could probably snap me in half like a twig. If _Lane_ wanted to he could snap me in half like a twig. And if he was referring to my emotional strength, well… I was crying right now. That's a no.

Finally, was I beautiful? Other people seemed to think so, sure, but compared to other girls I had seen, no. I wasn't beautiful at all. Ask any pageant parent other than my mom. Sure, I was _pretty._ "Pretty" was the word they used when you weren't good enough and they wanted to try and make you feel better. "Pretty" was something they said all of the girls who didn't win were. "Beautiful" was a word reserved for the winners, and I certainly wasn't beautiful.

Mudkip and Vulpix released themselves from their pokeballs, then pressed the buttons to let the pichu out of theirs.

The pichu were both horribly confused, but Vulpix instantly came and cuddled up to me, and Mudkip dug into my backpack and pulled out Fuzzlekins. He proceeded to give me the plushie and cuddle with me himself.

"Thanks, guys…"

It was with their help that I started to calm myself down. In the meantime the pichu started playing and amusing myself, and no one couldn't feel a little happier watching them play together.

When I thought I had calmed down enough, I stood up.

"Hey guys, are you ready to start training? We have a gym battle and a contest coming up, and you two need to be ready!"

"Pichu!"

"Pi!"

They both perked up and ran over to me, jumping onto my shoulders. I laughed. "Sorry, guys, but not only are those spots reserved for Vulpix and Mudkip, but all of you need to go back into your pokeballs."

They jumped off of my shoulders onto the bed and whined, protesting the act. I forgot that the pika-evolutions also tend not to like pokeballs.

I shrugged. "It's part of the deal. I told you I do contests with a mask, did you think that I would just show off the pokemon I use for contests while I'm being a trainer and the ones I use for battles when I'm at contests? It would be a dead giveaway."

Their ears drooped in defeat.

"Hey, how about I give you two nicknames?" I asked. I needed some way to tell them apart should that tuft disappear.

Their ears perked up again.

I looked to the one without the tuft of hair that I would be using for contests first. "Well you're both boys… How about I name you after gods from mythology?"

They both bounced up and down, anxious to hear the names.

"So you can be Jupiter," I said to the one without the tuft, "and you can be Loki. Sound fair?" They called happily at me before talking amongst themselves, probably calling each other by their new names.

On that note, I returned all four of my pokemon and went out to the woods, on a different route than the one Leon had been on. I found a clearing, made sure no one was around, and released the Jupiter and Loki.

"Jupiter, since you'll be in contests, you're going to focus more on making your moves look good than brute force. You'll still have to have some punch behind your moves for battles, but remember that. Loki, you need to focus on how to make your moves pack as much punch as you can, but you also have to learn to use them in different ways. Using a thunderbolt that only went straight in front of you wouldn't work well on a flying type, and using one that only went up and down wouldn't do much good for any other type. Let's see what you guys can do. What moves do you know?"

Jupiter waved at me first. "Pi!" Loki stepped aside and I turned my full attention to Jupiter.

Jupiter blew a kiss, making big, puffy valentine hearts appear all around him. Sweet Kiss. Then, he made a field of electricity appear around him, which spread to the hearts and made them glow. Thunder Wave. Following that, after a bit of a charge, a huge blast of thunder came out of his tiny body and blew all of the hearts away, in all directions around him. Thunderbolt. Finally, he looked at me and called to me, which charmed me right away. Attract. It was only the fact that I was a human instead of a pokemon that kept me from going head-over-heels for him.

Both Loki and I applauded the small electric mouse, to which he did a tiny bow and almost fell over.

"That's great, Jupiter, you already have a contest performance figured out!"

He blushed and drew a little circle in the dirt with his foot.

"Your turn, Loki."

The brothers switched places and Loki took his place facing a tree. He ended up knowing Nasty Plot, Thundershock, Thunderbolt and Wild Charge.

We spent a couple of hours working together to get things in order. With Jupiter, I focused on teaching him how to battle and look good at the same time, the right poise to have, cute poses, and how to exit his pokeball in a way that would appeal to the crowd. I explained to him how exactly all of the points worked, and everything about him that people would love.

With Loki, we worked on aiming his thunderbolt in different directions, as he had trouble with that. Jupiter didn't have that problem, which frustrated Loki. I had Jupiter give examples and try to explain, then explained myself until he finally hit his target.

Both of them were out of juice and exhausted by the end of the training, so I returned them to their pokeballs and went back to the pokemon center, where I first gave all of my pokemon some food, then had Nurse Joy watch them while I went to get food for myself.

I was sitting outside of a café when I witnessed a man having trouble controlling his Rapidash. It reared up in an attempt to break free of the harness on its head being held by the man, neighing quite loudly.

"Whoa, Rapidash, whoa!" The man tried in vain to pull the pokemon back down. When he went to put his hand on the pokemon's back, the flames burnt him. The man did a small dance in pain and once again tried to get the worked-up pokemon under control. It was when I could tell the man was about to resort to violence that I stood up and walked over to them.

"Excuse me, sir, mind if I give it a try?"

He practically threw the lead rope at me. "Give it your best shot, girl, but don't blame me when you get hurt."

I gave the rope plenty of slack, which the Rapidash liked. It tugged on the rope with its head, and I went along with it. I knew that you would get burned by a Rapidash or Ponyta's mane if you tried touching it while it didn't trust you.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked the man.

"It's a mare." He said, worrying more about his hand than the horse.

I took the oran berry that came with my meal and held it out to the Rapidash. I clicked at it, which got its attention.

"Hey, girl… what's the matter? Do you want a berry?"

The fiery horse eyeballed me for a second before cautiously walking over to me and taking the berry from my hand. It seemed to calm down a bit.

"Good girl… now tell me, what's got you all worked up?"

It pawed its hoof on the ground. "Your hoof?" I asked. "If you want me to look at it, then don't burn me with the flames on your feet."

It made no effort to agree or protest, so I leaned over, sliding my hand all the way down its leg to make sure it knew what I was doing. When I reached the hoof, I grabbed it and felt no burning, and she lifted the hoof for me to see without protest. There was a big, probably sharp and uncomfortable rock lodged in her hoof. I looked up at the man.

"Do you have a hoof pick?" I asked him.

"A what?" He had no idea what that even meant. I sighed and pulled out my multitool – which was in my belt after having to slice that String Shot off of my legs – and took out the flat-headed screwdriver part of it that I knew I would never use and was perfect for the occasion.

I scraped out the rock, along with a few other, smaller rocks, and all of the other crap that had accumulated in the horse's hoof over time. The Rapidash looked relieved; especially when I moved on to get the other hooves. The man clearly didn't know how to take care of a horse-like pokemon, and had probably received this one in a trade. I didn't even have to hold onto the lead while I took care of it. The poor thing was probably uncomfortable for quite some time, and the huge rock just tore it. I found a nearby tree and tied the lead onto it, giving the horse plenty of room to lean down and trim the grass around it that hadn't been touched by weed whackers and needed trimming, anyway. Then I went and found the man, who had retreated into the café to get his hand taken care of.

"Sir, I found the problem and fixed it."

"What, you took out its brain?" He asked.

I blinked. "No, sir, you haven't been cleaning its hooves properly. It had a huge one in its front hoof and lots of other uncomfortable things in the other ones. Do you know how to properly groom your pokemon?"

"I don't give a rattata's tail about grooming it. I want it out of my hair. I got this thing for my daughter, and not only did she not want it, but it did nothing but burnt us every time any of us touched it!"

"It didn't burn me, and we just met." I put my hands on my hips.

"Then you take it." He glared from me to the Rapidash, and pulled out a pokeball. A white light went to the rapidash, faded away, and the pokeball hung open and useless. He had released it. "Good luck." With that, he stormed out of the café and back to whatever nasty place he came from.

I exited as well and went to the rapidash. It was tired of mowing the weeds around the tree and was aware of the freedom it now had.

"Hey, sweetie. Would you like to come with me?" I petted it, fascinated by the fire on its back that refused to burn me."

She snorted at me.

"Okay, okay, fair enough. I'll let you decide, but first let's get you to the pokemon center so that Nurse Joy can look at your hooves."

The rapidash didn't protest to this, so I untied her from the tree and lead her to the pokemon center. When we got there Nurse Joy took care of her hooves, gave her some food and let her roam in a small, fenced-in area by the center. The fence wasn't very tall, but it was enough.

In the rest of the day before I decided to go to bed, some kids who had caught wind of me and my story challenged me to a battle, hoping that they would be able to brag and say that they had beaten someone 5 years older than them. Using only Mudkip and Loki, I basically crushed their dreams and took half of their money.

I decided to go to bed early so that I could get up early in the morning and catch the ferry to Dewford Town.

The next morning Rapidash decided to come on my journey with me. It wasn't a situation where I had to bribe her with all the berries she wanted; she just stubbornly found one of my pokeballs and put herself in it. I was leaving earlier than most of the other coordinators who were also staying in Rustboro, which I had no problem with. Leaving earlier meant that I might be able to get a more comfortable ride on the ferry, since this would be the last one that would make it for the contest tomorrow.

The walk to the ferry was long, though, so I released Rapidash and decided to do some practicing. I didn't expect to use Rapidash in this contest, maybe not in contests at all, but I had to be ready in case I chose to do so. I learned that she knew Megahorn, Bounce, Fire Blast and Solarbeam. I couldn't help but smile when I learned all of the moves – it was a nice variety of moves you didn't see on many fire types. Having bug, flying, fire and grass type moves were going to be a huge leg up on the competition. The fact that she knew Bounce also meant that she was a very high level. Whoever gave her up to that man was just plain stupid.

Aside from that, having Rapidash made me think more about leaving contests and inconspicuously changing back into Katarina. Looking at my map, I realized that there would be woods near the contest hall and pokemon center, but unlike the contest in Verdanturf town, the pokemon center wasn't directly connected to any trees. I would have to take my bag with my change of clothes and find some other place that would be private enough for me to de-glamorize myself without the possibility of someone who tried to follow me being able to find where I was.

'_You're flattering yourself there.'_ I thought. As things were, no one would go so far as to stalk me through a bunch of woods to find out where I went and what I was doing. Maybe, _maybe,_ when I started winning I could worry about that. But it didn't hurt to plan ahead. My eyes wandered back to Rapidash, and then it hit me: I just had to get away fast. It was perfect. Rapidash were capable of reaching up to 150 miles per hour, and could get to top speed within 10 steps.

I had never ridden a Rapidash or Ponyta before, though, and I would have to be riding her sidesaddle, so going that speed and accelerating that fast was out of the question. Still, the plan had its potential.

"Rapidash… you don't think I could ride you away from contests, do you?"

She looked at me with a glint in her eye that I could only relate to a human smirk. She _wanted_ to run, probably even more badly than I imagined. She stopped to allow me to get onto her back.

"Okay… you should know that I haven't ridden a pokemon ever before… and I wear a dress for contests, so I'll have to ride you sidesaddle… just don't take off and go top speed right away." I warned it. The glint was still in her eyes. Oh boy.

After a couple of tries, the first of which I landed on my butt, I finally got onto Rapidash's back, sidesaddle and everything. Now came the next issue: what would I hold on to? Rapidash's manes were made of flames, and even though I wasn't going to get burnt, I couldn't hold onto flames for support.

Rapidash started walking and, when I started losing my balance, my hands automatically went to the right places to best stay up. I didn't realize it at first, but Rapidash was slowly training _me_ to ride her.

As we slowly started making progress towards a gallop, I learned a few things: First was to keep your legs steady and let them hang where they naturally go. You shouldn't let them go everywhere and bang into the side of the horse, but you also shouldn't hug them too tight to the pokemon's side or you risk shifting yourself too far towards your legs, falling off and getting trampled. That brought up the second lesson: keep your body weight centered on the horse. Too far one way or the other would end in disaster. The third, and I believe the most useful thing I learned, was that you should brace yourself against whichever direction or speed change Rapidash was going to go through. If she was about to slow down, you would lean back so you don't get flung forward. Speed up? You lean forward. Going left? Lean left. Going right? Lean right.

We reached a straight spot in the road, and there came the moment of truth. Rapidash started speeding up, nowhere near as fast as she could, steadily reaching a fast gallop. The process of getting there was a bit bumpy, and I did have to think fast and adjust myself, but the gallop itself was actually pretty smooth. I relaxed into the motion. When we hit a curve, Rapidash only slowed down a little bit and I had to lean pretty far against it, but I handled it.

Focusing on staying on Rapidash took my focus away from what was around me. We only passed one person on the route, however, a person with pale hair, yellow eyes, and a preference for black clothing…

It was only when I saw a sign that said there wasn't long before we reached the ferry that I told Rapidash to stop. She was disappointed to not be running anymore, but thrilled about being able to run nonetheless. I walked with her a little bit so that she could cool down, took care of her hooves, then returned her to her pokeball just as the boat dock came onto the horizon. I walked the rest of the way there, already way ahead of schedule.

I bought a pass for the ferry and got on, finding a seat that wasn't connected to very many others. There were a total of three places people could sit or stand. The first level where you got on, which would be the last place to fill up and by far the most crowded and hot, the second deck up, still inside and smaller than the first, then the deck on top of the ferry. It was in the open air and would most likely be the least crowded. My seat was on the top deck.

I watched people slowly pile onto the boat over time, until it was packed on the decks below and time to leave. The boat set out, and I watched the waves the boat made as it went. Little did I know that as I was watching the water, someone was watching me.

When we finally reached Dewford Town, I spent the rest of the day looking for the perfect spot in the woods to make my change. I let Rapidash out for this as well, so that she could remember the path and make the wild pokemon around us refrain from attacking. It was off of the paths, but we found a small pond enclosed by all of the trees, its water crystal clear. It was a beautiful spot. I told Rapidash to remember the place, and that she would be running to it. Her eyes lit up at the word "run," so I knew I had her attention.

The only thing interesting I did in the rest of the day was going to the pokemart and buying a wrist holster for my pokeballs. It had more than one place to put them, unlike the necklace I would have used. I also got ball capsules and some seals. Back in the pokemon center, I experimented with them until the effect looked right for each pokemon.

The next day, I didn't have a roommate and I was free to get ready on my own schedule. I took all of the things I would need for the contest out of my backpack and left them in my room, then I took the backpack, spare change of clothes and all, out to the woods where I would be changing. It was a good refresher of exactly the route I would take and it got me hungry for breakfast first thing in the morning. After eating, I went back to my room to prepare for the contest.

I decided that Jupiter would be the pokemon I used for the appeals round, and that the pokemon I chose for battles would depend on the opposing coordinator's pokemon. I would try to avoid using Rapidash, however. Having two pichu came in more handy than I thought it would as well. They were able to grip things, unlike Mudkip, Vulpix and Rapidash, so I got them to tighten my corset for me, after a little bit of instruction and a couple of re-dos. I put the wrist holster on and arranged the pokeballs on it, taking the risk of bringing Mudkip and Loki with me. The ball capsules and seals would help me tell them all apart if worse came to worst.

Before I left, I grabbed my room key and tucked it into my bra. I didn't normally put things there, but I would need it, and it was the safest place to put it on this dress without losing it. On the side, it wasn't uncomfortable or noticeable, so it could stay. My contest ID, however, I had in my currently empty ribbon box. I would need it more immediately than the room key, and I wasn't going to dig it out in front of the receptionist. Finally, I put the mask on. With it on, I felt myself adjusting to the new character I was going to play. I stood up straighter, my mind became clear, and my expression became calm and indifferent.

"Hello there, Amethyst…" I greeted myself in the mirror before putting on a coat of lip gloss. She smiled back at me. She knew she was going to win this one, and Leonardo wouldn't get in her way.

I checked the hallway and, once it was clear, I left through the pokemon center. Sure, some people noticed as I walked through the lobby, but a pokemon center was not an uncommon place to be. I walked to the contest hall, registered for the contest, and waited. I was early once again, so I went about grooming my pokemon, being sure to take care of Rapidash and Jupiter right away so I could move on to Vulpix, my known pokemon, before other coordinators arrived.

It was when I just started brushing Vulpix that Leonardo once again showed up and found me. He smiled and walked over to me. "Ah, so we meet again. There are no hard feelings from the last contest, are there?" He sat down by me without permission and started grooming his vaporeon. The two pokemon glared at each other as we spoke.

"_I_ have no hard feelings. It is a contest, after all. Vulpix, however, may disagree…"

It was then that Leon actually noticed the glares between the two pokemon. "Now, now, Vaporeon; don't be so rude." He scolded the pokemon. He pulled out two oran berries, giving one to his vaporeon and the other to Vulpix. "A peace offering."

Vulpix was hesitant at first, but she was a sucker for oran berries. She took the berry and hopped down off of my lap, eating hers next to his vaporeon. They were at least passive towards each other now.

"So, are you ready to lose again?" Leon asked, smiling at me the whole time.

"Actually, I believe it's my turn to get a ribbon." I smiled back at him sarcastically, though he would never know that.

"We'll see… but you may just have to wait until I have my five ribbons…"

"Ah, getting a head start on your guaranteed admittance to the Grand Festival, are you?"

"Funny you ask, but yes."

I had no comeback for that, and instead of responding, my attention shifted to Vulpix and Vaporeon. The two of them, despite what they had gone through just a few days earlier, were actually playing together.

"You see, why can't we get along like that?" Leon asked me.

"Maybe because I can't be swayed with oran berries."

He laughed and stood up. "We have some time before the contest starts." He offered his hand to me. "I want to show you something."

I was skeptical, but something in the back of my head was pushing me to do it. I took his hand and pulled myself up, but he didn't let go after the deed was done.

We returned our pokemon, and he led me through some hallways. While we were walking, he checked something on his pokegear, but put it away quickly. I had no idea where we were going, of course. We came to a door that had no label on it, and he opened it for me. I stepped out and realized that this was the back of the contest hall. I was instantly paranoid about what he was going to do and wanted to go back inside. I turned around to go back through the door, but I bumped straight into Leon.

He laughed again, somehow still making it sound genuine. "What's your hurry, butterfly?"

Oh Arceus, a nickname. Before I could make any clever retort, he had me backed up against a wall and both of his hands holding mine beside my head, his fingers laced with mine so that there was no way I could pull them away. Then, just when I thought that this could be the same situation as when I was Katarina, where he just had his face near mine to intimidate me, he kissed me.

Every reasonable part of my brain told me to resist and try to get away somehow, but I had more unreasonable parts than reasonable. My instincts took over, and I closed my eyes and kissed back. Happy with my reaction, he let go of my hands and moved his around my waist. I had just moved my arms around his neck when, all at once, the smaller forces of reason rose up and overthrew my instincts.

My eyes snapped open and I shoved Leon off of me. Then, before I yelled at him or beat him up, I saw that there were people with cameras; _lots_ of people with cameras, disappointed and trying to walk away casually. Some were sticking around and hoping I would do something else.

For once, I was actually speechless. I went back into the door to the contest hall, and Leon followed.

"What's wrong, Amethyst?" He asked as he entered. As soon as he shut the door behind him, I lost it.

"You know perfectly well what's wrong! You set me up! _You_ called those paparazzi and you took my _first kiss_, you son of a houndoom!"

"Oh, I did? That's even better." He walked towards me, and once again, I backed into a wall. I _had_ to stop doing that. He didn't pin me this time, but he leaned forward and balanced himself against the wall with one arm, right in front of my face. His voice lowered. "Then it looks like I have the first kiss of you _and_ Katarina…"

"What do you-…?" I realized what he meant and immediately tensed up.

He laughed again. "Yes, I know your little secret… and Lane could know just as easily…"

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

This was a losing battle. I had to get out of here.

"…How long have you known?" I asked.

"Since the first contest… you left your mask out on your bed when I came in to change, butterfly…"

"Don't call me that." I glared at him and slipped out from under his arm, walking back towards the waiting area and other people, where he wouldn't dare dirty up his image.

"It would be a shame if Lane found out… he must think the world of you. I've never seen him go so far just to get a girl away from me."

I turned around when I reached the door to the waiting area. "You'd better be prepared, Leon, because before those tabloid magazines even manage to get done with their stories, they'll have to add on that I crushed you and took the ribbon you wanted."

"We'll see."

**~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~**

**GAH it's DONE!**

**I was going to include the contest in this, but it just kept getting longer and longer until this monster was created. Besides, this wonderful cliffie showed itself and I couldn't resist. Thanks for reading~!**

**REVIEWS ARE LOVED AND WILL GET YOU OXYGEN COOKIES! :D**


	5. Threats

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any names related to it. I do, however, own the original characters in this story, but Echidnagirl even helped with a couple of those. In conclusion… don't sue me.**

**Also note: Echidnagirl helped me out yet again with this chapter. Thank you, Echidnagirl! (you should go look at her stories cough cough)**

**~~~Chapter 5~~~Threats~~~**

Word had already gotten around by the time we lined up to be introduced to the crowd. Leon stood next to me again, which didn't help. There was more attention on the two of us than the other coordinators. People were taking pictures. When I stepped up as my name was called, Leon's fangirl section booed at me, and one even threw her insanely high heel at me. I saw it coming from the moment it was thrown, and caught it just before it reached my face. I used a tactic that sometimes I used on Vulpix and Mudkip when we played with the beach ball. I acted like I didn't notice it, kept a calm face, and let my hand shoot up at the last possible second.

People awkwardly stared from me to the fangirls. No one wanted to do anything; they just wanted a reaction. So, I decided to give them one. I carried the shoe back over to the girl who threw it. When I held it out for her to take, I smiled.

"Don't get too energetic, dear. With heels as high as those you might get a sprain."

I noticed as she took the heel back that there were a couple of reporters scribbling down what I had just said and done.

The girl glared at me. I was expecting a reluctant 'Thank you,' but instead she asked, "Who _are_ you?"

Her tone suggested the real meaning of the phrase was 'Who do you think you are?' Still, I decided to answer the question she actually asked.

"Amethyst. Pleased to meet you."

Another girl piped up. "Oh, yeah? I think that's a lie! Take off your mask!"

I stood up straight, no longer needing to be leaned over to hand the girl the shoe nor wanting to have my face anywhere near their hands. My face changed from a smile to indifferent once again. "Believe what you will."

Without looking for their reactions, I turned and got back in line. It took a few seconds for the MC to realize it was time to go on to Leon; something that would never go unnoticed before.

Leon got as many cheers as before, maybe more so than last time. _I,_ on the other hand, almost let myself turn and glare at him. I was still furious with him, but there was no way I could deal with it now. I would have to let Katarina settle this later.

In the appeals round this time, there were a good number of people in between the performances of Leon and I. I thanked Arceus for that; I didn't want to deal with him any more than necessary today.

Finally, it was my turn. I stepped out onto the stage with Jupiter's pokeball in-hand.

"Next up is Amethyst!" The MC called out. The crowd cheered.

"Steal the stage, Jupiter!" I threw out the pokeball, and the pichu came out in a bright light, surrounded by hearts.

He smiled and posed in the most adorable way, but seemed shocked when he saw the number of people in the crowd.

"Use Sweet Kiss, Jupiter, then Thunder Wave!"

Jupiter, overwhelmed by all the people, forgot to spread all of the valentine hearts from Sweet Kiss all around. The hearts only ended up floating right above his head. Thunder Wave went alright, and the hearts began to glow.

Butterflies started turning in my stomach and my head began to race. The crowd didn't suspect a thing for now, it only looked like I was pausing for dramatic effect. But what could I do with all these hearts? They wouldn't spread out like we practiced now. Attract wouldn't do anything. Jupiter was expecting me to tell him to use thunderbolt, too. Anything else would throw him even farther off track. I looked up at the hearts, and an idea came to me.

"Now, Jupiter, use Thunderbolt to shoot the hearts into the air!"

I thanked Arceus that I was using the brother who knew how to aim. The baby mouse pokemon charged up electricity in his body, then shot a giant beam of electricity into the hearts. They shot up and spread out when they got high up enough, then burst like fireworks.

Finally, it was over. I reminded Jupiter to pose, smiled, bowed, and returned him to his pokeball.

Going back to the waiting room, I was unpleased to find Leon waiting by the door for me. He followed me through the room and sat down next to me at the bench where I sat.

"You stumbled a bit out there, butterfly."

"Stop calling me that. I know." I stared straight ahead at the monitor. At this contest, they wouldn't bring us out for the results of the first round. There were a few more people before the results would come out, anyway.

"So you caught a pichu. Thinking of me, were you?"

"I was thinking of any coordinator with a water-type pokemon."

He smiled. "Of course you were."

"Leave me be, Leon." I turned away from him and looked at another monitor in a different corner. "You may speak to Katarina about me later."

The results were popping up on the screen. There were plenty of great coordinators at this contest, and with my slip-up, I wasn't sure how I would stand.

Leon's picture, of course, was the first to appear. As more and more showed up, none of them showed the girl with the mask. There was a pause just before the last appeared, and every coordinator without a spot held their breath.

Then, a wave of relief hit me. My face appeared. I was last, but still in the running. I should have known that my first year would have been rougher than the first contest. More and more seasoned coordinators were starting to participate after sizing up the new competition.

But, as soon as the relief came, it disappeared again. I was matched up to a man, a few years older than me, who used rock-type pokemon.

"Oooh, that's unfortunate. Too bad you don't have, say, a mudkip."

I turned and glared at him. "I told you to leave me be."

Leon stood up. "Fair enough. I'm on first, anyway." He went and retrieved his pokemon from the volunteer and walked out of the room, while I thought about strategy.

Leon won his match without a hitch, and wasted no time in rubbing it in my face.

I, on the other hand, was freaking out even more than at my first contest. My battle was last. I would have preferred to have gone first and gotten it over with.

I went into the grooming room, where few, if any coordinators would be at this time. I didn't know if Rapidash would listen to me, or if she could do it, but her bug and grass-type moves were my only hope if I was going to beat that guy. I released Rapidash and started to groom her. She was antsy the entire time, and no doubt wanted to run some more. I didn't manage to brush her as much as I wanted, but she bolted to the door and almost reached the lobby before I returned her to her pokeball.

I wasn't willing to try again. It wasn't worth it. Before I knew it, I had started pacing back and forth along the floor of the room. I tried to stop myself from thinking about it too much, but that only made it worse. I was shaking again, and had to stop myself from hyperventilating a few times.

It was only when I made a rush through the viewing area to the restrooms that the other coordinators could see how much the pressure was getting to me.

Personally, throwing up in the bathroom was a new low. I mentally smacked myself for being this stressed over a _battle._ But, then again, these were different circumstances.

In battles, if you lost, you could just pay your money, heal your pokemon, train a little more and have a rematch. There were only so many contests. So many ribbons. So many chances to get it right by the time the Grand Festival came around.

I heard the battle right before mine going on from the monitors, so I pulled myself together, cleaned up, and made sure I had Rapidash's pokeball ready before I left the bathroom.

Looking around the room, I noticed that Leon was watching me. I made it a point to not look in his direction any more than that time while I found a volunteer to take me to where I would wait for the battle to start. I didn't want to deal with Leonardo right now on top of everything else.

"Steal the Stage, Rapidash!"

"Rock their world, Tyranitar!"

Both pokemon came out at the same time, in a flash. The huge dinosaur pokemon towered over Rapidash.

'_Damn it.' _I thought. It was hopeless. Still, I wouldn't give up without a fight.

"Begin!" The MC called out.

"Use Sandstorm, Tyranitar!" The other coordinator yelled.

With a roar, the pokemon summoned a harsh wind, mixed with sand and rock. I could barely see anymore, and raised my arm to try to block the wind. Rapidash didn't seem to be doing any better than me.

"And Tyranitar kicks up a sandstorm, leaving Amethyst and Rapidash in the dark!" The MC called as I heard my points going down.

"Now use Earthquake!" I heard from across the field.

"Get off the ground, Rapidash! Use bounce!" I rushed out.

Rapidash just barely got off the ground before the earthquake hit, but I couldn't do the same trick. The ground moving under me was a completely unnatural feeling. I lost my balance and fell down, and I briefly noticed my ankle hurting a bit before my attention was grabbed away. Quickly, I sat up and looked above me.

Rapidash was up above the sandstorm, glaring at what I'm sure was the Tyranitar. She was up near the sun, something that I knew I had to take advantage of now.

"Now, Rapidash, use Solarbeam!" I ordered.

But, instead of gathering light, Rapidash aimed her horn down, and it started to glow. She dove through the sandstorm at Tyranitar.

"Uh-oh! Amethyst had some quick thinking telling Rapidash to use bounce, but there seems to be a teamwork issue here!"

The earthquake subsided, and I stood up, trying desperately to see Rapidash.

"A direct hit on Tyranitar! That has to sting!" The MC called.

"Hyper Beam!" I heard the other trainer yell, apparently frustrated.

"Dodge it, Rapidash!"

A huge, bright blast cut through the sandstorm just to the left of me. I felt the force of it even with it a few feet away.

"Rapidash uses its famous speed to get out of the way just in time."

'_I need to get rid of this sand… I can't see anything!' _I thought. Then, it hit me.

"Rapidash, go to the center of the sandstorm, then use Fire Blast, towards the sky!"

After a brief delay, I saw a plume of fire shoot out of the sandstorm. Then, sure enough, the sand cleared out as it was turned to a glass dome, all around Rapidash. The shape wasn't complete, it was mostly squiggles fused together, but it was still pretty.

"Now use Solarbeam!"

Rapidash finally started to listen to me, and began gathering light. But Tyranitar was done recovering from its Hyper Beam.

"Rock Tomb, Tyranitar!"

"No!" I yelled, but it was useless.

Tyranitar stomped its foot on the ground, and rocks shot out of the ground over and on top of Rapidash. The Solarbeam launched, but it only bounced off of the rocks and back at Rapidash.

When the rocks slid back into the ground, I completely forgot my calm demeanor. Rapidash was lying there, on the ground, knocked out and hurt badly.

"Rapidash!" I went to run forward to her, but my body took the opportunity to remind me that I had messed up my ankle somehow. I almost fell down again.

The crowd was cheering, the MC was yelling out congratulations to the other coordinator, and I could tell that backstage, even if it was just on the inside, Leon was laughing at me.

I pulled off my heels and limped over to Rapidash. She looked up and neighed at me, so I sat down next to her and cradled her head.

"I'm sorry, girl… this is my fault. You did wonderfully. Why don't you get some rest? I'll make sure someone fixes you up right away."

She snorted at me as I returned her to her pokeball.

With Rapidash safe, I came back to reality and remembered to stay calm.

I smiled and congratulated the other coordinator myself, and in return he helped me stand up and get back to the waiting room, where a nurse was ready for me and a volunteer was waiting for Rapidash's pokeball.

"You should be alright to walk by the time the contest is over. The injury wasn't bad." The nurse smiled at me when she finished treating my ankle.

"Thank you." I nodded at her, balancing the ice pack on the hurt ankle and wishing that there was something to help with my hurt pride.

I sat there, practically forced to watch the rest of the contest as Leonardo slowly but surely made his way to the finals. It was there that he battled against the rock-type user. I honestly had no idea who I should have hoped would win, but I knew what was going to happen regardless.

Leonardo used his tiny little Vaporeon to utterly destroy the giant Tyranitar. In all honesty, he never stood a chance.

The nurse gave me permission to leave during the celebrations and ribbon presentation, an opportunity I gladly took. No crowds, no fangirls to say "I told you so," and most importantly, no chance for Leonardo to wave his second ribbon around in my face.

I received Rapidash, fully healed, from the volunteer, slipped on my heels, and made my way to the front door. To my relief, walking in the only shoes I had didn't hurt all that much. Go painkillers.

When I stepped outside, I was hit by a tidal wave of light. Not just from the sun, but from camera flashes. There was a whole mob of people yelling at me, taking my picture, trying to get me to look at them. There were reporters yelling questions.

"Hey, Amethyst, where's Leonardo?"

"Is it true that you were making out with him behind the contest hall?"

"Why do you wear a mask?"

"How do you feel about your second defeat?"

A reporter and a camera man came and got right up in my face. The reporter, a woman, handed me a picture taken earlier that day of Leon kissing me.

"Tabitha Hunt, Channel 7. Tell me, Amethyst, we have many sources confirming that this picture taken earlier today is, in fact, real. What are your comments? What happened that led to this event? How did you seduce Leonardo? Have you been his fan for long? Did you enter contests so that you could meet him?"

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to slap that woman. Why did she assume that _I_ was the one responsible for the stupid kiss?

"No comment." I handed the picture back to the woman and walked away. The yells only started up again, louder than before. The crowd of people blocked my way and was closing in around me. I was _not_ sticking around for this.

"Rapidash!" I yelled, throwing out the pokeball. The horse materialized a few feet away from me, on the other side of the wall of people.

I pushed my way through them, when I saw a hand reaching for my mask out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed the man by the wrist and glared at him, and my voice became deadly. Every ounce of venom that I had saved up for Leonardo, his fangirls, and all those reporters came out at this one man. "You keep your disgusting hands off of me, or I'll see that you be thrown into the very center of a hive of Beedrill, covered in honey, on an island surrounded by a lake of nothing but pissed-off gyarados."

The man nodded at me quickly, panicked, and the mob around me got very quiet for a few seconds. I threw his hand away from me.

"...Now, get the hell out of my face before I drop you in a pool of tentacruel and sic an angry jolteon on you."

The man ran away, fast. But, as for the rest of the mob, they started yelling and taking pictures again. Still, as I walked to Rapidash, they got out of my way.

I jumped up onto her back, sidesaddle, just like I had practiced. "Time to run, Rapidash. You know where we're going."

Rapidash's eyes lit up, and she took off for the woods just as Leonardo came out of the contest hall. It only took a few seconds for the mob to fall out of view. I sighed as Rapidash ran, letting out whatever negative energy was left over after yelling at that man. Looking out in front of me, just in case there was some new obstacle or low-hanging branch, I realized why Rapidash loved running so much. Going this fast helped me forget everything that went on and just live in the moment for a little while.

That "little while" ended fast.

"Rapidash, we're getting close, slow down." I told her.

She snorted and stubbornly kept on running. Great. She was angry at me, and she was going to run whether I liked it or not. She was barreling straight towards the pond. I knew what she was planning. She would either stop dead and throw me in, or turn fast and throw me in. I looked up and saw a low branch coming my way fast, but it was my only option. I reached up and grabbed onto it, holding on for dear life as Rapidash ran forward and stopped right at the edge of the pond. She looked back and glared at me.

"Nice try." I said, kicking off my heels so that they wouldn't hurt me when I jumped down.

The landing hurt my ankle a small amount, but I was still alright to walk. I went and found my backpack, then looked around for any sign of human life. Finding none, I returned Rapidash to her pokeball and changed as fast as I could, so that no one would see me if they happened to show up. I put the dress, shoes and mask away in my backpack and pulled out a washcloth. I dipped it in the water of the pond and took all of my makeup off, making sure not to dunk the dirty cloth back in the clean water. Then, using my hands and a brush, I messed up my hair and then brushed it back into its usual pigtails. I knew the walk back to the pokemon center was going to hurt, but riding Rapidash wasn't an option any more. I couldn't wait to get back to my room and take a shower.

**~ squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~**

The next morning, I heard a knock at my door. It wasn't obnoxiously early like when Lane woke me up, but I had fully planned to sleep until at least noon today, stay in, and watch TV while I ate a ton of junk food I had gotten yesterday. It was a rare privilege for me, because my mom was always nagging me about keeping my weight down before.

I went and opened the door, in my pajamas, with pure, uncontrolled bedhead.

"What?" I snapped at whatever poor soul was at the door.

"Oh, so the butterfly is a sore loser, hm?" Leonardo asked, his cocky grin on his face.

I glared at him. "Just get into the room before someone hears you, pretty boy."

Grin still present, he waltzed into the room, peppy as can be. I slammed the door behind him, locked it again, then shuffled over to the TV.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I fiddled with the controls. Normally I would have no problems with the remote, but I wasn't a morning person.

"_Amethyst_ said I should come and talk to you about her, so here I am."

I finally got the right channel and moved out of the way for him to see. "Quit talking about me in the third person. Look," I pointed to the gossip channel, currently showing a picture of the two of us kissing, claiming that I was the one who seduced Leon, "at what you've done. Everyone thinks I'm some fangirl of yours that's too chicken to approach you face-to-face, who entered contests just so that I could meet and seduce you. They say I don't care about actually winning the contests. That it's all for freaking _you._"

"Maybe you should clean yourself up. You look like a skitty that went through a tornado."

"I don't care."

"An ugly Skitty."

I growled at him.

"Alright, alright." He put his hands up in defeat, then went over and sat down on the edge of the second bed in the room that I wasn't using. "Now, about that whole 'crushing me and taking the ribbon I wanted' thing…"

"Would you just shut up about the contest? I lost. I get it. I barely even made it to the second round and failed miserably when I got there. The first contest when I made it to finals was just a fluke, it's never going to happen again, and I should just kiss my contest dreams goodbye. Is that all you wanted to tell me?" I flipped the channel to some random, cheesy soap opera. But, their drama was much more dramatic and important than mine, and that was comforting. I plopped myself down cross-legged in the middle of the bed I was just sleeping in.

"That's not what I was going to say at all, actually…"

"Then what is it?"

There was an awkward pause where he just stared at me from where he was sitting, kind of zoned out.

"Leonardo. Tell me what it is that you came here for, or get out."

"Hm?" He snapped out of it, making eye contact with me again and clearing his throat. "I apologize. I was just thinking about how Lane would react if he saw you like this."

A giant blush instantly covered my entire face. "What's he got to do with this?" I looked back at the TV stubbornly.

"Nothing really. But, even though I know you would disagree, Lane isn't the Mr. Perfect people make him out to be."

"You're one to talk."

"Fair enough." Leon stood up and walked over by the bed I was sitting on.

I held the remote up like a weapon at him. "Touch me, and you die."

"Oh, alright. I'll back off now. Your remote is _so_ intimidating." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. Before I could react, he grabbed the remote from my hand and changed the channel back to the gossip one.

"Hey!"

"Watch your tone with me, Trainer. I know your secret now. I can tell them who you are," he pointed at the TV, "and I can tell Lane who you are."

"You've used that threat already."

"Why change it if it works?"

"Get to the point."

"I won't tell anyone your little secret if you do something for me."

"That depends on what it is." I raised an eyebrow at Leon.

"You'll see. Just answer my calls, and do as I say when I tell you to do it." He dropped the remote onto the bed in front of me and strolled out the door.

'_Answer his calls…? How could he…?'_ I cut my own thoughts off and grabbed my pokegear. Scrolling through the contacts, I found exactly what I didn't want to find. **Leonardo.**

I turned off the TV and the lamp, pulled myself under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, this was some horrible, yet realistic nightmare.

**~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~**

**Well guys, I feel really stinky for making you wait so long for this, but here it is. I hope the story got a little more realistic and a little less Twilight-ish.**

**Review, so that I know what to fix and what I'm doing right! **

**REVIEWS ARE LOVED AND WILL GET YOU OXYGEN COOKIES! :D**


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